


True Crime: East Meets West

by The_Head_In_Charge



Series: True Crime stories [2]
Category: True Crime (video games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Arms Dealing, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Buddy Cop Formula, Buddy Cop movies, Canon-Typical Violence, Car Chases, Chases, Crime Drama, Crime Scenes, Crime Thriller, Crimes & Criminals, Criminal Masterminds, Criminal Underworld, Detectives, Drug Dealing, Gangs, Gen, Good Cop Bad Cop, Gun Violence, Hand to Hand Combat, Interrogation, LAPD, Martial Arts, Mystery, Narcotics, Organized Crime, Partnership, Past Violence, Play By Your Own Rules, Police Procedural, Revenge, Russian Mafia, Suspense, Thriller, Triads, Yakuza, buddy cop, excessive force, nemeses - Freeform, nypd, tong - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-09 19:19:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 66,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20000626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Head_In_Charge/pseuds/The_Head_In_Charge
Summary: Marcus Reed teams up with Nick Kang to bust an old nemesis from Marcus's criminal past. However, there is more than meets the eye as more problems come their way. Can these two get along as partners? Or will they clash despite their methods being somewhat similar yet different?Rated M for graphic violence and strong language. If the violence gets more gruesome, I may up the rating.





	1. Introduction Part 1A (New York)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a story that I came up with sometime ago. I feel that True Crime is such a long forgotten series that it gets no love. So I am trying to bring it back. Maybe one day Activision can consider rebooting the franchise. Enjoy!

**New York City, Spring 2006.**

_New York City, once a hotbed for crime has now been cleaned up. Not necessarily crime-free, but when my prince Marcus is cleaning up the streets the way he can, it only makes sense for my kingdom to still be strong as it has been for many years. When looking at my boy, I could not help but feel pride for him because he had cleaned up his act. I was always there for my son, even though I wasn't a great influence on him. He had made a few mistakes, but he was lucky to get a chance to redeem himself, although I can tell that his past haunts him in many ways and there are times that he displays shades from his past even while on the other side of the law. And when that happens, sometimes even the darkest parts from your past resurface, and that's never a good thing._

_-Isaiah Reed, aka "The King."_

One night, as Marcus left the precinct, he had approached a taxi cab to help take him back to his place. It was not just any taxi cab, though. The man behind the wheel was Freddie, a man whom Marcus had done multiple favors for and because of it, Freddie was not opposed to giving Marcus free rides from time to time.

"Marcus, how you doing, my friend?" Freddie asked.

"What up, Freddie," Marcus said. "Just take me home, I had a long day."

"As you wish, sir," Freddie said.

As Marcus enters Freddie's green taxi cab, a black car pulled up at about 30 feet away from behind them. Freddie looked in his rearview mirror and noticed the car parked there for no reason.

"Is that the guy?" said one of the guys in the car.

"I think so," said the guy in the backseat. "The boss showed us a picture of him. It's got to be him."

"Hey, Lamont," said the guy in the front passenger seat. "Follow that cab."

"Right, Mike," said Lamont, as he turned his head forward, and took a deep breath.

As the green cab started to roll off, the black car started to do the same thing. Freddie drove Marcus, who was tired after a long day on the job. Freddie looked through his rearview mirror right at Marcus.

"Hey, Marcus, what's going on?" Freddie asked. "Why so quiet? You look tired, I thought you never sleep."

"Come on, Freddie, of course I sleep," Marcus said. "Just not on most nights. I have too much on my mind right now, I think I need a vacation or something new to happen."

"I know what you mean, my friend, I am the same way," Freddie replied as he glanced through the mirror and as his eyes shifted to right behind him, he could not but notice the same black car that was behind him earlier was still behind him. Even with the brightness of the headlights, he was certain that it was the same car as he leaned slightly closer to the mirror.

As the cab pulled up in front of an apartment complex, the same car, while it was at a distance, still followed them. Freddie looked over in his side rearview mirror to confirm his suspicion of the car.

Marcus got out of the cab and said good night to Freddie, he reached for his wallet to pay his fare.

"No, keep the money, you'll thank me for this," Freddie said.

As Marcus pulled away from the cab, Freddie floored the gas to get out of there as fast as possible. He looked on with a lot of confusion, but also with little surprise to Freddie's action in the matter in that moment. As he walked inside the building, Mike, and the other man, Ron, got out of the car to follow Marcus inside, as Lamont looked on with a bit of worry and confusion on his face.

When Marcus entered the elevator, his Motorola cellphone rings and he saw the contact's name and it was Freddie.

_Man, what does he want?_

Marcus answered the phone, "What's up, Freddie? You just raced off in a hurry."

"I have to warn you," Freddie said. "I saw a car follow us on our way to your house. I got really scared and I must tell you that you might be in danger."

Marcus's eyes widened as his jaw dropped a bit after he had heard that. But even with a touch of fear in his system, Marcus was not about to turn away from all of this. When Freddie told him, the only thing he had to do was prepare himself for what was to come.

The two men walk right into the building, fully strapped and clearly up to no good. They were given information of where Marcus lived by their boss. The two went up the elevator and got out their guns and then put silencers on them to avoid making noise. They walked down the hallway and right to the door of his apartment and knock on the door a few times.

"There is no answer," Rob said.

Mike put his hand on the door knob and was taken aback when he noticed that the door was unlocked.

"Let's just go in and get this over with," Ron said as he cocked his pistol. "Just stay out here and make sure nothing happens."

Ron opened the door as he was the first to enter and noticed that no one was around, only for the door to close and Marcus stood right beside the door while holding a gun and walked right behind Ron and pointed his pistol right to the back of his head.

"Freeze, motherfucker," Marcus said.

Just then Ron looked up and realized something was up.

"Drop the gun, now!" Marcus yelled. "Who sent you?"

Ron put his gun on the floor and put his hands up in the air, and then started to smile a bit.

"You got me," Ron laughed a bit. "But I ain't telling you shit."

"Oh no?" Marcus said. "You were sent here to kill me, and you know that is a major felony if you kill a cop."

Ron said nothing as he could not help but laugh at what Marcus said. He slowly reached his hand against the gun to pick it up, but Marcus kicked the gun away.

"I'm not letting you do that, tell me who you are working for and why he sent you to kill me," Marcus said. "Who do you work for? Lionel Jones? Vincent Tuzzi? Magdalena Rojas? Leeland Shen? They're all locked up. JUST SAY IT!"

Mike then opened the door.

"Ron, what the fuck is going on in here?" Mike said, and Marcus then turned his attention, which then gave Ron the opportunity to pick up the gun once again, but Marcus acted fast and turned around and grabbed Ron by his arm and snapped it. The amount of pain caused Ron to scream at the top of his lungs. Marcus then delivered a karate chop to the back of Ron's neck which knocked him out.

Even in such a short amount of time that Marcus acted in self-defense, it opened an opportunity for Mike to get out his gun to shoot him, but Marcus had been in situations like this before, so the moment Mike tried to open fire, Marcus quickly aimed for Mike's leg and shot it. Once the bullet hit the leg, blood squirted out and he then fell to the ground. That didn't stop Mike for reaching the gun, but then Marcus went right to him and pointed his gun to his face.

"Don't even try," Marcus said.

Marcus did not hesitate to cuff Mike right then and there, so that he wouldn't try anything else. Right when he was done cuffing Mike, Ron had regained consciousness and then stretched arm to have it pop right back into place. Ron wasted no time in attacking Marcus from behind, but rather than just simply shoot him, he just got out a wire and tried to wrap it around Marcus's neck to strangle him. Ron pulled back tight which caused Marcus to gag. The only thing Marcus could do in the moment is walk backwards and bump right into the wall. Right when they hit the wall, Ron had let go of the wire. Marcus coughed as he tried to breathe.

"You're under arrest," Marcus said.

"Fuck you," Ron said.

Marcus looked at Ron. "Oh, is that so? Well, I thought about doing it the easy way, but now I have to do it the hard way."

Marcus picked Ron up to his feet and punched him so hard that he knocked him down. Ron got right back up, as he was not done trying to do the job, but this time he got out a knife.

"Oh, shit!" Marcus said.

Ron ran right to Marcus, who then opened the door to the hallway and hit his head right against the door to the neighbor across the hall. Right then, several of Marcus's neighbors walked right out of their apartments to see what was going on. Ron got up and tried to slash Marcus with the knife who then kicked it out of his hand and then jumped up in the air and delivered a hard knee right to his face.

"Reed, what the hell is going on here?" One of the neighbors said. "We heard gunshots."

"Please do me a favor, call the police," Marcus said, and then fell right to the ground in exhaustion.

Meanwhile, outside, Lamont waited for Mike and Ron to come back, only to see that a lot of squad cars were rushing the spot.

"What the fuck is this shit?" Lamont said.

Lamont looked on as many cops got out of their cars. He did the only thing he could do in that moment: just drive off.

As a few uniformed cops go inside to see what was going on, Marcus dragged a handcuffed Ron outside and threw him inside a squad car, while another cop walked Mike outside, who limped from the gunshot to his leg. Ron looked behind and saw that Lamont was nowhere to be seen.

"I guess that fool Lamont sold us out," Ron said. "That cop knew we were coming."

"I don't think it was him," Mike said. "But he knew, and Lamont was supposed to be our driver and other lookout guy. He sold out against the crew and he'll pay the price soon."

Another car had pulled up and out came Deena Dixon, Marcus's lieutenant in the Street Crime Unit, who is somewhat like a mother figure to Marcus.

"Marcus, what happened?" Dixon said. "I came as soon as I heard what was going on at your apartment."

"Two men came to kill me," Marcus said. "They didn't say who they were working for, but I am going to find out soon."

"Marcus, I don't think you're safe here," Dixon said. "Maybe you should stay at a hotel for a night or so, and I think you should take a vacation before we get to the bottom of this."

"Hell no, I don't need a vacation," Marcus said. "Besides, what if you guys don't catch the guy behind this?"

"Okay, how about this?" Dixon said. "If you don't want a vacation, how about I get you into the program where someone from our unit goes to another city and works with one of their officers? You'll still work, and you will be a lot safer there than out here."

"I don't know, let me think about this," Marcus said.

"Look, you need to rest, but you need to be somewhere else," Dixon said. "You can't be at your home because whoever wants you dead, he will likely send another person after you."

Marcus turned his head because he knew that he wanted to be on this case so badly, but with him being a marked man, he couldn't be in this situation.

"I'll get back to you in the morning," Marcus said. "I'll go stay at a hotel."


	2. Introduction Part 1B (New York)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after the first part. Marcus wants to find out who tried to kill him. However, his superiors want him to be safe.

The following morning, Marcus came into the precinct in hopes to finally get to the bottom of who tried to have him killed. However, being that he was a marked man, it just wasn't safe for him in NYC much longer.

Lt. Dixon approached Marcus as he walked right in, as he was ready to find the guys in the holding cell.

"Marcus, what are you doing here? You should be somewhere else, far from here," Dixon said.

"I know, but until I want to know who called in the hit," Marcus said. "Someone must really want me dead enough to try to kill me in my own home."

"We will find who it is, don't worry, it's our job," Dixon said. "We are even trying to get the OCU in on this, it has to be someone big."

"What about those guys we busted last night?" Marcus asked.

"I have bad news, they were bailed out two hours after they were arrested," Dixon said.

Marcus shrugged at what he had just heard, but his lieutenant had a point. If Marcus were to stay in New York, the chances would have been good that he would be dead by the end of the following week, maybe even much sooner than that.

"Okay, and I thought about what you said about me going to another city," Marcus said. "I am thinking about it, but I haven't decided. Do I get to choose the city?"

Dixon replied, "As far as I know, the following cities that can use some help are Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, Las Vegas, and Chicago."

Marcus was tempted at helping at any of those cities. Suddenly, the phone rang at Dixon's desk.

"Excuse me, Marcus, I should get this," Dixon said, then she approached her desk to pick up the phone. "Hello, this is Lt. Dixon of the PDNY's Street Crime Unit."

"Hi, I would like to speak with Marcus Reed, is he available?" said the caller.

Dixon's eyes widened a bit and her mouth opened a bit what she had just heard, then her eyes shifted towards Marcus at that moment.

"Yes, he is," she said. "May I ask who is calling?"

"It's not important, but I need to speak to him right now," the caller said. "Put him on, please."

"Okay," Dixon said. She gave Marcus a signal to go to his desk so that he could take the call. Marcus approached his and picked up the phone.

"I will put him on right now," Dixon said.

"This is Reed," Marcus said while he held the phone to his ear.

"Hello, Detective Reed, I have some details you want to know," the caller said.

"I am kind of busy right now trying to figure some shit out," Marcus said.

"I know who was behind the hit on you last night," the caller said.

Marcus's jaw dropped right at the end of the caller's statement.

"Who is this, by the way?" Marcus said.

"My name is not important, but what I will tell you is that I was there last night," the caller said. "The guy who ordered your murder was Bobby Green."

Right then, Marcus's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped even further, like he knew that name rather well. He then looked around to make sure no one was listening to the conversation.

Marcus lowered his voice a bit when replied, "You better have a damn good plan to get the fuck out of here, because the last thing you want to do is snitch on Bobby Green."

The caller replied, "You think I don't know that, and don't worry, I will get out of here. I am helping your ass out and I will tell you one thing you really need to know. He is heading out to Los Angeles to make a deal with someone. He hasn't said who, he ain't telling us shit about the deal, but he is heading out there soon. Thought you'd want to know about this."

Marcus then looked over at Dixon, who then saw a familiar face walk in through the precinct.

"Okay, thank you for this information," Marcus said. "But like you said, you fuck with Bobby Green, you're as good as dead."

"I know, but you have some support here," said the caller.

Marcus then hung up the phone and approached Dixon and the familiar person.

"Whitting? What are you doing here?" Marcus said.

"Dixon told me about the hit that was put out on you," Whitting said. "I am here to help the PDNY on this case. With these guys wanting you dead, it's best that you…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, that's what I wanted to talk about," Marcus said, who turned his attention to Dixon. "I thought it over, and I want to go to LA to help out over there. Just keep me up to date about the case involving the hit on me."

"We will," Dixon said. "We will call the person in charge of a division in LA that would involve you being able to have jurisdiction throughout the entire city. I have heard of it. I think that they are called the Elite Operations Division."

"Cool," Marcus said. "I will be out of here in a bit. I have to make a personal call."

Marcus got out if the precinct and made a call to someone who needed to hear about what he had gone through.

"Hello?" said the person on the other side.

"Hey, Pops, I have something I want to tell you," Marcus said.

"Marcus, this is a surprise," said Isaiah Reed, Marcus's father. "How are things going? What's going on?"

"Not that good, and all kinds of shit," Marcus said. "I'm going to need for you to find out about some shit involving Bobby Green, he tried to have me killed last night."

"Bobby Green?" Isaiah said. "He tried to have you killed? I ain't surprised about this, but he better get out of dodge if he was going to have you capped, or else he would not make it out of here, alive or dead. Let's not forget the history you two have, in fact, we all have a bad history with THAT family. He blamed you for the death of his old man, not to mention you busted his brother, among other things."

"Exactly what I am getting at, it seems that he is going to LA to sort some shit out," Marcus said. "I wouldn't be shocked if he was doing this because he knew he would have some heat on his ass."

"Look, you know I still have some guys on the streets," Isaiah said. "I will have some of my guys look into some of the shit that has happened."

Marcus did not know what to think, especially since he had conflicting sides on the issue. One being his fellow police officers, the other his father's gang, which he still maintained his ties to because of his father.

"Well, I have some support on my side on it," Marcus said. "But you better stay out of their way in trying to figure it all out."

"Don't worry, son, I know what I am doing," Isaiah said.

"Okay, I'll be in touch, just call me on my phone, even though I will be on the other side of the country, settling this shit my way," Marcus said.

"That's my boy, but as a father, don't get too caught up in your own shit while you're on one side of the law," Isaiah said. "You don't want to bring out the old Marcus."

"Yeah, I know, talk to you soon, Pops," Marcus said and then closed his own right when the conversation had ended.

Marcus went back inside the precinct and went right up to Dixon and Whitting, and said the one thing that was on his mind: "When do I get to leave for LA?"

Later, as Marcus exited the precinct, Whitting approached Marcus with something to say.

"Hey, Marcus, just letting you know, the feds will have your back on this whole thing," Whitting said. "If you ever have to work any of my fellow feds, just tell a man named Masterson that I am sorry for almost having him killed a while back."

"Um…okay, I'll keep that in mind," Marcus replied, not having known anything by what the veteran FBI agent meant.

And Marcus was off to Los Angeles, California, unbeknownst to his superior that he was bound to go after an old nemesis of his.

* * *

**MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE**

Mike and Ron stood right behind a man in a suit, but it was not just any man, it was their boss, Bobby Green, who was better known as B.G., who ran a gang in a way that was different from how Isaiah Reed ran his gang. B.G. had inherited the leadership of the gang after the passing of his father, Omar Green, who was also known as O.G. Bobby stood there with his right-hand man, Andrew Kirby, who called himself A.K., as well as his muscle, Terrence Brown, also known as Big Tank.

"Did you want to see us, B.G.?" Mike asked.

"That's Mr. Green to you, motherfucker," Bobby said, who then turned around to face the two. "Last night, you guys had one simple task to smoke Marcus Reed, but you two managed to get your asses kicked and arrested in the process."

"Well, it was not our fault, we…" Ron said.

"Shut the fuck up!" Bobby said. "I noticed that Lamont was nowhere to be found, that guy had better be gone or we'll get him gone ourselves."

Mike and Ron looked at each other not knowing how to respond to it.

"One more thing, how did you two manage to get your asses kicked by Marcus Reed, huh?" Bobby said. "You guys had guns, you should have blasted him right in the fucking head."

"We tried, but…" Mike said.

"But WHAT?! Huh?!" Bobby said. "It should have been easy. Now it's possible that we are going to go down because you guys couldn't get the job done. I would kill you guys myself right now, but I think I may need you two motherfuckers when we get to LA for our little deal. Until we get back, I expect some of my other men to try to get rid of Marcus Reed, as well as his father, Isaiah Reed, whom I had heard should be getting out soon."

A.K. whispered something in Bobby's ear.

"Look, you two come with us on this business deal, and then maybe afterwards, I will decide if I should keep you guys alive," Bobby said. "If you fuck up while there, I will fuck you guys up."

Ron and Mike weren't in the least bit phased by what they were told, as they nodded their heads after what they had head.

"You may go now," B.G. said, whom still had A.K. to his side, as he wanted to tell him something.

"I need for you to call someone back," A.K. said.

"Who?" B.G. said.

"You KNOW who," A.K. said.

"Right," B.G. said, who then got out his phone and made a call.

"Hello," said the person on the other end.

"Hello, Captain," B.G. said. "It seems that my men didn't get the job done."

"What? They didn't take out Reed?" the Captain said. "Well, we'll deal with him and his old man some other time, you need your ass to LA now. Our client is waiting for you guys."

"We will be leaving here shortly," B.G. said. "I will deal with Marcus Reed later."

B.G. hung up and was set to go to the West, but he had no idea that he was about to be followed by someone whom he knew very well, or so he thought.


	3. Introduction Part 2 (Los Angeles)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction Nick Kang into the story.

**Los Angeles, Spring 2006.**

_L.A., the City of Angels, but I still have yet to find any angel around here. Some have also called it the "City of Dreams," but I have told an old friend of mine that dreaming will get you killed. It's amazing to see how ugly and beautiful this whole city is at the same time. The son of that old friend, Nick Kang, has seen the ugliness and beauty, whether it's dealing with crooks or even dealing the hot stars in these parts. I have looked at Nick as the son that I never had and his old man, Henry, would have been proud to see him avenge his death the way he did sometime ago. I sometimes wondered if after that, he would have left the life of a cop and be a martial arts instructor like his little brother Cary. But I can't tell Nick on what he should do. Besides, he wanted to be a cop just like his old man. He may do a great job in cleaning up the streets, but sometimes even the streets may get plagued by the evils from other parts of the country, and I know that my pal Nick can do it the only way he could._

_-George Sherman, Los Angeles Police Department._

It was a day like any other in the City of Dreams for Nick Kang, as he walked on his beat like any other cop would. Detectives, uniformed cops, even meter maids were always walking the streets and when crime hits, it was a sign that someone needed to go right for it.

It was an afternoon on a Wednesday, and Nick went to a bank in Downtown Los Angeles. It was a day when he had to make a deposit of his paycheck. Plus, with crime being low in that part of town, he had to find something to do.

Nick worked for the Elite Operations Division, which was a division of the LAPD that had a city-wide jurisdiction. He could go to various parts of the city, ranging from Beverly Hills to Watts, and he would have jurisdiction to break up the crime that was happening at that very moment. Being that he had a rather unorthodox brand of justice, it would be safe for some criminals not to mess with him.

It was a slow day at the bank as Nick walked up to the first teller he saw, which was an attractive young woman. He slowly approached the counter with half a smile on his face.

"Hey there, gorgeous," Nick said. "What do you say if I cash this check and I take you to dinner?"

The teller's face started to get red as she let out a minor chuckle at that remark he made.

"I'm flattered, but I think I should do my job," she said. "Plus, I have a boyfriend."

"What does he that I have that I don't have?" Nick slyly replied. "I bet he doesn't have a badge like I do." He then flashed his badge to show who he was.

Though the teller tried to be professional and do her job, there was little to resist in Nick's charm. After all, Nick had a swagger about him that the ladies loved, even if he was a danger to criminals and civilians alike.

Just then, three armed and masked men walked in through the front door of the bank. The main guy had a standard ski mask on and was wielding an MP5, while the other two, who had a hockey mask and the other had sunglasses and a bandana covering his face, were brandishing a SPAS-12 shotgun and an AK-47 respectively.

"Alright everyone, this is a fucking raid!" said the main robber. "Don't anybody fucking move, or I'll blow your fucking heads off!"

Nick had no choice but to get down on the floor, but because he had dealt with much worse threats during his time as a cop, he was no stranger to anything like this.

"Where's the, uh, manager?" the main robber said, as he trembled. "I need to find the manager so that we could take all the money."

The machine gun-wielding robber yelled, "Take us to the safe and nobody gets hurt."

The machine gun robber looked towards the teller that Nick flirted with. "Hey, beautiful, show us where the money is and I'll let you go."

The teller shook as she whimpered and a tear trickled down her face. She got out from behind the counter and did what the robber asked her. A lot of the patrons at the bank shook and whimpered at what was going on in front of them. Nick looked at around and noticed something irregular about all of this: the shotgun robber just stood there frozen with his weapon drawn, but was not aiming the gun at anybody. The way the main guy talked gave him an idea that this stickup was their first time, or at least they haven't knocked off a lot of banks, if any. Knocking off a bank was a lot different than knocking off a liquor store or supermarket.

Though he was outnumbered, Nick was not about to let this go unpunished. Nick slowly crawled on the floor. The shotgun guy just stood there. He didn't bother to look to his right, as Nick slowly moved on the floor. The guy continued to look in front of him, as Nick crawled behind him and got to his feet and drew his Desert Eagles that he often carried. He could think of two options to at that moment, either try grabbing the robber from behind and drawing attention to the other two robbers. Or he could knock that one out and try going after the other two. It was now or never.

Nick grabbed the shotgun robber by the neck and fired a warning shot in the air. The gunshot alerted everyone in the bank. The robbers and the teller were close to the safe. The moment they heard the shot, they immediately turned around and the teller ran away from them and went to set off the alarm.

The alarm started blaring, and the main robber with the submachine gun saw the teller and drew his gun and pointed it right towards her. Just when he was about to pull the trigger, he felt something hit his right shoulder and blood squirted right out of there.

"What the fuck?" he said, and then turned around and saw Nick holding their crew member in a human shield position. The same two robbers drew their guns and pointed it right at Nick and their cohort.

"Ah ah ah, you do that and your friend gets it," Nick said.

"Who are you, some kind of hero or something?" the main robber said.

"No, I am an EOD agent," Nick said. "And right now, you're all under arrest."

"Fuck you!" the main robber said as he and the other robber drew their guns. Just as they were ready to shoot, Nick pistol-whipped the hostage on his head and then dropped to the ground as they were about to open fire. Nick quickly reacted and jumped behind a pillar. The two ran right out into the main floor. The robber with the AK saw the teller from before and pointed his gun right to her head.

"Say good night, bitch," he said. Nick quickly got out from behind the pillar and pointed one of his guns to the left leg of that robber and then pulled the trigger. The guy screamed and fell to the ground as blood spurted from his calf. The teller watched and shook as she saw what just happened. Nick ran towards him and saw the rifle and kicked it away from him before he tried anything else.

"Try anything funny and you're dead," Nick said. "Now where's your buddy?"

The main robber hid behind another pillar, but Nick looked up and saw a line behind it that matched the color of that guy's clothes. He quickly got up and ran towards the pillar and put his back against it with his Eagles drawn. Nick slowly strafed around and brandished his gun on his left hand and pointed it right at the head of the main robber.

"Drop it, asshole," he said. "Or your ass is toast."

The robber dropped his gun, and despite having a gun to his head, he elbowed Nick right in the gut and then sucker-punched him right in the face. Nick then dropped his guns in the process, but it wasn't enough to faze him.

The robber then popped his knuckles and put up a stance.

"Ooh, tough guy, aren't you?" Nick said. "Okay, we could do this the easy way," as he pointed his handcuffs. "Or we could do this the hard way." Nick then put up a fighting stance. Everyone in the bank looked at him like he was crazy.

The robber threw the first punch but Nick quickly dodged the attack. The robber then threw a few more punches as Nick dodged and blocked a few more of them and was then met with kick to the legs and a punch to the face and a kick to the wounded right shoulder, which caused the robber to scream. Angry at the pain, the robber then rushed towards Nick and tried to tackle him. He grabbed him by the legs and slammed him to the ground and then tried to punch him, but missed as Nick moved his head and caused the fist to hit ground, as the robber screamed in pain again. Nick quickly slid from under and got to his feet.

Nick jumped up and did a karate yell and he delivered a strong front kick to the robber's face, knocking him back and to the ground.

"You have the right to be in extreme pain," Nick said in a smug tone.

However, the robber was not done yet, as he saw one of Nick's pistols on the floor and picked it up and then pointed it right at his face.

"You know you're looking at life if you kill a cop," Nick said as he drew his other pistol and pointed it right at his face. "I have question for you, do you feel lucky? Well, do you?" As he point the gun right to his forehead. "Punk?"

It was then that Nick used the gun to pistol-whip him on the arm so that the robber could drop the gun and Nick then yelled out "FINISH HIM!" as he delivered a hard dropkick that sent the guy flying to the ground. The main robber was now defeated.

Nick wasted no time as he got out a set of handcuffs and cuffed the main robber.

"No one ever touches my guns, no one!" he said. He then cuffed the other two, especially the one he knocked out first. But then something irregular drew his attention as he noticed his unconscious body. A bag of what appeared to be an unfamiliar drug caused Nick to get close and see what it was.

What is THIS shit? Never seen it before. Nick put the bag in his jacket and promised that he would take it as evidence.

He got to his feet. "Okay, everyone, show is over, let's give me a round of applause." All the tellers, security, and patrons got up and were relieved. The attractive teller approached Nick.

"Thank you so much, Detective Kang," the teller said. "Here's my number if you want it." The name said Tina Ferguson.

"Really? Would your boyfriend like that?"

"Okay, that was a little lie; I don't have a boyfriend actually. I just said that because I get hit on all the time here."

"Well, looks like I got what you need, honey," Nick said. "Just call me Nick, okay?"

Everyone started walking out of the bank to a crowd of police cars and uniformed cops. Each and every cop noticed that all of the employees and patrons were okay, while the last to come out were the three handcuffed robbers, who were now unmasked as they were shoved outside, and finally Nick was the last to exit as he pat his hands in victory.

One of the cops looked up in shock and disgust. "Kang, I should have known!"

The cop then approached Nick in rage. "What the hell is going on here, Kang? There better not be any bodies in there!"

"Whoa, who pissed in your coffee this morning, Johnson?" he said. "I was just doing my job. No one is dead and this was all in a day's work."

The media had come to the bank to get some coverage of the failed heist that Nick had thwarted. As soon as he got away from the press and fellow police officers, he got out the little bag he confiscated from one of the robbers. He tried to identify what the drug was, but he just couldn't. He had only one option for his question to be answered.

**One hour later.**

Nick had arrived back to the EOD headquarters and walked in to a hero's welcome. Everyone in the department applauded him after it had been said that he singlehandedly taken down a robbery, even though Nick suspected that the robbers were amateurs.

"Oh, well thanks everyone, but it was really no big deal," Nick said.

An older African-American woman with an afro approached him at that moment.

"Okay, everyone, back to work," the woman said. "Hey, Nick. So how did it go?"

"It went fine, Chief, but I found something on one of the robbers that seems weird," Nick then got out the bag. "It must be some kind of drug, but I have never seen something like this before."

Chief looked at the drugs and even she was unable to identify the drug, but had an idea on what it could be. "I think I might have heard about this, but I can't be too sure. It looks like a drug called 'Pop,' which I think is the new drug on the streets."

"Pop?" Nick said. "I think I've heard about that drug, too, but I had never seen it before. If I recall, didn't that drug come from Japan and made its way to New York?"

"I think so," Chief said. "But I can't be too sure. I might have to have the people at the crime lab figure this out. It seems that it had just recently gotten out here in L.A., but it seems that we may have to stop it before it becomes an even bigger problem."

"I think I might know a way to get some information," Nick said. "Where are those guys being held?"

"Oh no, Nick," Chief said. "I don't know if you should do that."

"One of those robbers seemed kind of off earlier when trying to stick up the crowd, he didn't notice me when I got to him," Nick said. "He has to know where he got the drug."

"Okay, but if you use your ways against him, we're not going to be held accountable for your actions," Chief said.

As Nick walked away, an attractive Latina cop approached the Chief and watched as he went towards the holding cell.

"Hey. Chief Parks, what's with Nick?" the Latina cop said.

"Rosie," Chief Parks said. "Nick found some drugs on one of the robbers he arrested today. It might be the latest drug that is on the streets. We think it may have come from New York."

"New York?" Rosie said. "I think I have heard of this drug. It seemed that Lionel Jones, the record producer, was out there was dealing in a drug called Pop."

"I think I have heard that he was caught doing that," Chief Parks said. "But we can't be too sure. I will have the lab guys look at it."

"Anyway, Chief, I wanted to talk to you about something," Rosie said. "I was thinking about getting back on the streets. I had been working at the desk on and off ever since I started here and I think I might be ready to work the streets again."

"Well, maybe this case might be a start for you to get back," Parks said. "But I don't know if Nick wants a partner."

"It doesn't have to be with Nick," Rosie said. "I just want to go out there and bust some criminals and investigate crimes. I think I can do it."

"I'll keep you posted," Chief Parks said.

Suddenly, a phone rings nearby. Someone picked it up.

"Hello, this is the Elite Operations Division of the LAPD, how may I help you?" the cop said.

The person on the other line said, "Hello, is Chief Wanda Parks in the office today?"

"Yes, she is. May I ask who is calling?"

"My name is Lieutenant Deena Dixon of the PDNY Street Crimes Unit. I would like to speak to her right now."

"Hold on one moment," the cop said. "Hey, chief, someone is calling for you, someone from the PDNY."

Chief Parks turned around. "We'll talk more about this later, Rosie. I have to take this call."

Chief Parks went into her office and then answered the call.

"This is Parks."

"Hello, this is Lieutenant Deena Dixon of the PDNY Street Crimes Unit. I am calling to inform you that one of my detectives may come to L.A. and work with you guys as part of the police exchange program."

"I'm listening," Parks said.

"Well, this is just between you and I," Dixon said. "My detective is in grave danger around here and I don't know how long he has until someone may kill him. My unit and the Organized Crime Unit, as well as the feds will look into who wants to kill him. Until we get to the bottom of it, I would like to have him work with you guys. Plus, it will show him something new than his usual grounds."

"We can do that, what's your detective's name?" Chief Parks said.

"His name is Marcus Reed," Dixon said. "He is a good cop and gets the job done."

"I will get a file on him soon," Parks said. "Now that you mention it, it seems that a drug from your neck of the woods had come down here. Are you familiar with Pop?"

"I had heard about something like this," Dixon said. "Marcus found out about something like this in a case he busted sometime ago. Maybe he can tell what you need to know. I will send you his file through email. Make sure you get it."

"You got it, I will keep in touch," Parks said and then hung up.

The question on Chief Parks' mind at that moment was who she could have partner up with Detective Reed. Though she was told that Rosie wanted to get back on the streets, she wasn't sure if that would be a good choice. Her inbox got a new message. She opened it up and got the file on Marcus Reed.

From what she saw, it stated that Reed had quite an arrest record. He had broken up some major drug deals, arms deals, counterfeiting rings, prostitution rings, and also taken down four major gangs in Manhattan. He had made first grade detective in the Street Crimes Unit. With a record like this, she could think of only one person who would be suited to partner up with him.

Meanwhile, in the interrogation room, the shotgun-wielding robber, now unmasked, sat there nervously awaiting his interrogation. He didn't have as menacing of a look like the other two robbers did. He was as menacing as the fourth member of their crew, who was nothing more than the driver, but he was caught by other cops patrolling the area, but ran red lights and crashed his car before he could get away.

The guy sat behind a table with his head down. He couldn't face anything that was about to come to him, but he had to deal with it no matter what. Nick walked into the interrogation room.

"Ray Miller, huh? Well now, you're no longer the bad boy who tried to stick up the bank," Nick let that out as soon as he walked in and sat on a chair. "I can see that you don't want to talk. Fine, I could let you out and join your boys in the holding cell and become someone's bitch in the process, but I don't want to talk about the robbery. The thing I want to talk about was a little bag that I saw fall out of your pocket DURING the robbery."

Once that was said, Ray looked up and faced Nick with so much shock on his face. It was then that he realized where the drugs went.

"What are you talking about? What do you know?" he said with so much worry in his voice and started to shake.

"That's what I want to talk to you about," Nick said. "You say I could take you down for the robbery, but you're looking at harder time for possession of narcotics."

Ray sat there and shook some more.

"What's the matter? Never done time before?" Nick said. "I don't blame you for being scared. After all, the big house is a scary place and for a guy like you, it's going to be really hard living there."

"Y-you don't u-understand," he said. "I am shaking because I need to get high."

"Ah, going through withdrawals, I see," Nick retorted in a smart tone. "I don't blame you. You know your sentence could be reduced if you tell me where you got the drugs from."

"You think I'm going to snitch?" Ray said.

"Your boys had none of that shit on them," Nick said. "Compared to you, they might be facing some years for trying to knock off a bank, but you? You're looking at something more for carrying drugs, PLUS your involvement in your so-called score. You could get the same amount of time as your friends if you tell me who supplied you with the drugs. You see, I know where they came from. They came from New York, but also originated in Japan. What I want to know is how they came from the Eastside, as they also came from farther East. To me, it sounds like some guys around here are dealing with some drugs that were sent here and the supplier may have had a deal with some scumbags in NYC."

Ray then looked up directly at Nick from that remark. "A-as far as I…know, I met some guys who were working with Russian gangsters. They only gave some samples at first, but at some point, I overheard one of the dealers talking about a bigger dealer coming from New York soon to bring out more of that shit that I was using. But that's all I know. I'm just a user, not a dealer."

"See now, was that really hard?" Nick said. "Be a good boy, and you might get a good lawyer."

Nick then walked out of the interrogation room and headed straight for one person: the chief. He entered her office with something he needed to say.

"Hey, Chief, you got a minute?" he said. "I got something about the drugs that one guy was carrying."

Chief Parks looked up and then approached him. "Nick, you're just the guy that I wanted to talk to. I got off the phone with someone from the PDNY. It seems that we will be having one of their officers working with us. He might know something about the drug."

"That's fine, but who would he be working with?" Nick looked and saw Rosie. "Maybe he could work with Rosie. After all, she has been begging to leave her desk."

"Actually, I think he would work with someone with a little more experience and someone who needs to be watched in case anything bad were to happen," Chief Parks said.

"Oh, I get that, you never know if anybody from the East can be trusted around here, our cops know more and…"

"I was talking about you, Nick."

"Oh, okay. For a minute there, I thought maybe…wait, what?"

"The New York detective will be working with you," Chief said. "The lieutenant said that he is one of the finest from the Big Apple and being that you know the city, you can show him around."

"Look, I don't have time to babysit anyone and you know that I work alone. I can crack this whole case with my two bare hands."

"Listen, I decided that you are an experienced cop and I checked his file," Chief said. "He has quite an arrest record that you need to see for yourself."

Chief Parks turned her monitor so that Nick could see on the screen on what his partner had to offer. Nick looked at the file and the amazement in his system ran wild at the arrest record of Marcus Reed.

"Okay, I'm impressed," he said. "But I don't think we should work together. Guys from New York and me, we just don't mix."

"Save it, Nick, I already made my decision," Chief Parks said. "Detective Reed should be here soon. I have made some arrangements to have some of our guys to give Reed a good welcome to L.A., and because you will be his partner, I am going to have you join in on this."

The word "reluctance" was what described Nick at that moment. He was unsure if he wanted to work with anybody on this case, let alone someone from the Big Apple, but because Detective Reed may have had more knowledge about the drug, he may be some help on it. As reluctant as Nick was to do this, there was bright side to it, too.


	4. Meet Your New Partner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marcus flies to LA to meet the people he will work with.

After Marcus had gone over to La Guardia Airport to aboard a plane that was headed to Los Angeles International, better known as LAX, there were so many things on his mind.

Years ago, it was hard for him to leave the criminal life to move into the other side of the law. His mentor, Terry Higgins, took him under his wing to turn his life around. Though there had been signs that Marcus's past had resurfaced, even when he had a badge to flash. He spent some time at the academy and went to become a beat cop at some point. Then later on, he applied to work for the Organized Crime Unit, as Marcus wanted to make detective, but then other problems had occurred which then led to him working with Street Crimes again.

However, he still made detective and became a First Grade detective after he had singlehandedly managed to wipe out the crime element in certain parts of Manhattan. He also took down four major crime syndicates in Manhattan on his own, with little support, too. If anything, he had become more used to working on his own than with a partner.

But recently, he had found out that someone from his past wanted him dead. He had no idea why. From what Marcus remembered, he and Bobby Green were lifetime rivals. The same could be said about their fathers, though it had been speculated that they had a better relationship before everything fell apart. It was bad enough Bobby somehow blamed his father's death on the Reed family, as well as when Marcus had busted his brother and was now serving time. Marcus had nothing to do with his father's death, but that didn't mean that Marcus's father didn't have anything to do with it. Nobody knew anything about that.

In any case, it would be considered a disgrace if someone with a criminal upbringing decided to go to the other side of the law. However, Isaiah, Marcus's father, happened to be friends with Terry, despite their standings with the law. Terry was a father-figure to him, until Marcus found out that Terry not only faked his own death, but also used him as a pawn to get the gangs off the streets. Terry turned out to be crooked, but had a gray way of looking at things.

Isaiah never really looked at his own son as a disgrace. If anything, he was proud of how he managed to go from a criminal to a cop. Despite all of that, Marcus maintained his ties to his father's gang because of his old man.

Though Marcus had arrested a lot of criminals, the crime element in NYC was far from done. What was unsettling about this too was that his past was just now coming back to haunt him. He suspected that even his criminal past somehow resurfaced while doing his job, but even he knew his limits.

Marcus knew that he couldn't escape his past, but the question on his mind was why someone would target him if he hadn't thought about that person in some time. He was set to find out, as he was about to go the City of Angels to get to the bottom of it. Though Dixon had said that he would be working with someone to try to find out about a drug that had been plaguing the streets, Marcus had one goal in mind: to bring down Bobby Green, dead or alive.

He was about to enter unfamiliar territory, so this would be quite a step for him. Whoever he would work with better know the area well. It probably would be the same thing if it were the other way around. He was in for the ride of his life.

Unlike a lot of people, Marcus knew that Los Angeles had a gang element down there, so he never perceived that city as all of the glitz and glamour that the media presented it as.

It took some time but the plane had landed in LAX. Marcus walked off the plane, decked out with his baggy jeans, black leather jacket with the red fire symbol on the back, white shoes, and of course, his PDNY badge. He was out of his element here, but really, the only thing he wanted was to bring down Bobby Green, but it may not be an easy task.

The African-American cop walked out into the terminal and then received a call.

"Hello?" he said.

"Marcus, it's Dixon," she said.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Listen, it's been set up that you will meet someone at LAX," Dixon said. "It will be Wanda Parks with the LAPD's Elite Operations Division. Parks will let you know who you will work with."

"They already got a partner for me? I don't know about this."

"It's not up to me, it's up to them," she said. "Parks found a partner for you. He is said to be one of the best cops in LA."

"I'll see about that," Marcus said. "Keep me posted if you find anything on who tried to kill me."

"I'll be in touch," Dixon said.

Marcus then hung up his phone and looked around and saw an African-American woman with a sign that said "REED" on it. With her was a Latina cop.

"Hello, are you with the LAPD?" Marcus said.

"Yes, you must be Marcus Reed," the black woman said. "I am Chief Wanda Parks." She looked over at the younger cop. "This is Rosie Velasco."

Rosie extended her arm out. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Same here," Marcus said and shook her hand. "Where are we going?"

"Your partner was supposed to meet us here," Chief said. "I wonder where he could be."

Rosie then leaned over towards the ear of the chief and whispered into it. The chief told the New York detective that his partner got caught up in something, though something told her otherwise. In either case, the two lady police officers escorted Marcus to the EOD headquarters.

**30 minutes later.**

Marcus, Parks, and Rosie had made their arrival to headquarters. It was a long drive from LAX to get there, but LA is a big city. Marcus looked around and noticed that it was not completely different from New York City. Like his neck of the woods, there was the good, the bad, and the ugly parts. Though it was different in terms of style and setting, he was sure that the crime element and the glitz were similar.

"Hey, Chief," Rosie said when she walked to up to her. "I just heard from Nick. He's on his way back. He found some more leads."

"Sounds like the Nick I know," Chief said.

An elderly policeman walked up to Parks and Marcus.

"Hello, Chief, who is this?" the old man said.

"Oh, hey, George," Chief said. "This here is Marcus Reed from the PDNY. He will be helping us solve the drug case that Nick's working on."

"Drug case?" Marcus said.

"Oh, sorry I didn't fill you in," Chief said. "My detective found some drug from your area. I believe it's called Pop."

_Pop? How did it get out here?_ Marcus thought. It then occurred to him not that entire drug was taken away even after he put the Presidents Club away nearly a year ago. It made him wonder if any if the people who worked for Lionel Jones managed to escape and continued making that drug. After all, it did originate in Japan.

He also wondered if the person he was after had anything to do with the drug. Even it was, he can't confirm it.

"I am familiar with that drug," Marcus said. "I just don't know how it got out here. But I think I might have an idea."

"New York, huh?" George said. "Well, you might hate this town very soon, kid. LA is full of whackos and nutjobs everywhere."

"New York is the same way, with a bunch of whackos and nutjobs everywhere, too and I put some of them away," Marcus said. "By the way, you sound just like someone who I know."

"Really? People tell me I sound like this one actor," George said. "I forget his name, but he was in that one movie called 'King of New York,' or was it that movie with that British spy that took place in France and San Francisco? I can't remember, but people tell me that I sound like him all the time."

"Nah, it ain't that guy," Marcus said. "It's some fed who I worked with sometime ago. Kind of a weird guy, but I don't think you would know him."

"Really, that's cool," George said. "It's great meeting you, by the way."

Through the front door walked in a man who appeared half-Chinese and half-Caucasian. He stormed right into the precinct and walked towards Chief Parks, George, and Marcus.

"Nick, where were you earlier?" Chief said. "You were supposed to be at LAX earlier."

"Traffic was a bitch, and I got caught up in some shit," Nick said. "I went to get myself coffee and some guys just tried to rob the place, but I took them down." He looked over at Marcus. "Who's the perp?"

"What?" Marcus said. "Did you just call me a perp?" He flashed his badge. "Do I look like a perp to you?"

Chief said, "Meet your new partner, Marcus Reed. He will be helping us bring down the case involving that drug."

"Oh, you're the guy from the East," Nick said. "Can you get me a coffee? I couldn't get one because someone spoiled it for me."

"Fuck you," Marcus said.

"Nick, please," Chief said. "I already made my decision that you two will work together on this case. He said that he knows about this drug."

"I don't need to work with anyone on this," Nick said. "I work alone and the last thing that I need is for some 'hotshot cop' from the Big Apple to try to watch my ass." When he sarcastically said "hotshot cop," he moved his fingers like he was quoting someone.

"I got bigger fish to fry than to babysit people," he said.

"If this is a problem, I could just go," Marcus said.

"No," Chief said. "Your lieutenant informed me that you were in danger in New York. Besides, you can't crack this case on your own because you are out of your jurisdiction. You only have jurisdiction if you work with one of my best detectives. Nick is the guy."

The chief looked right at Nick and mouthed something to him. She and Nick walked away for a little bit. Marcus stood there and watched, while someone had walked up to him.

"Hey," a female voice said.

Marcus turned around and saw Rosie right there. "Oh, hey, just wondering, but what's with that guy?"

Rosie replied, "Nick? He just has some issues. He's not so bad if you get to know him."

"I figured that," Marcus sarcastically said. "This will be a good partnership for both of us."

"Give it time," Rosie said. "He's a bit of a loose cannon, too. So watch yourself with him."

_Loose cannon, huh?_ Marcus thought. _He don't know shit about what I've been through. I can definitely handle this guy._

"Anyway," Rosie said. "What's New York like? I've never been there."

"It's a big city, full of all kinds of shit," Marcus said. "Scumbags, hookers, big ass traffic, you name it."

"So it's not much different from here," Rosie said. "You'll probably get used to it around here in no time."

"I don't know," Marcus said. "The streets of Manhattan are no walk in the park, and I don't just mean Central Park, either."

Rosie chuckled at that remark.

Nick and the chief went into her office to discuss something. The moment the door closed, she let it all out.

"Look, Nick, I know you don't want to do this, but as your superior, you have to do what I say here. Reed knows something about this drug and can try to find who the supplier is. You are more experienced than he is and has quite an arrest record for a rookie detective. If you fuck up, it's in my hands. I can't allow that to happen."

Nick took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll work with him. If he knows something, then I'll have to take your word for it."

_I bet he won't be able to handle the shit I go through._ He thought.

"That's what I wanted to hear, Nick," Chief said. "I want you to show him around the area. Also" Parks had found a picture that someone took with the man who Nick busted previously. "That guy you arrested was seen trying to buy some drugs somewhere. Maybe this might be a lead on the dealers."

It appeared that Ray, the man who Nick arrested, had him be an informant if he were to get a reduced sentence. While it seemed that he was addicted to the drug, he didn't want to do more time compared to the guys he was in the robbery with. So he went in to try to get some info on the dealers.

Nick took another look at the picture. He looked closer, too, like maybe there was something familiar about one of the gangsters. Maybe not so much that he had met him before, but more that he looked like someone he knew. But he couldn't make out who it could be.

"I was told that this took place near a Mick's in Santa Monica," Chief said.

"Man, and I thought that going to a place like that is bad for you," Nick said.

"Nick, this isn't time for jokes," Chief said, who then showed him a picture with the license plate number. "I'll keep you up to date if we find anything."

"I forgot to mention this," Nick said. "He said something about Russian gangsters. Maybe they might be the ones supplying it. I should go look."

"Niiiick," Chief said sternly.

"Okay, WE should go look," Nick said in an unwilling tone.

He got up and exited the chief's office and then saw Marcus standing there with Rosie.

"Come on, let me show you around," Nick said. "Let's see how you like it around here."

The two detectives walked into the police garage to find one of the cars that Nick uses. He had a few to choose from, but one that stood out to him was a yellow sports car.

"Damn, what kind of ride is this?" Marcus said.

"This is the kind of ride that gives you the need for speed," Nick said. "And also to catch up to some scumbags who try to outrun us."

The two entered the car with silence.

"I'm going to tell you right now," Nick said. "I am sure you don't want to do this anymore than I do. But out of respect for the chief, I am going to tell you to not to get in my way if some bad shit goes down. I am bad and you don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me."

"That sounds like something I heard from a movie," Marcus said. "Well, I don't want this anymore than you do, either. I mean you don't know about any of the shit I'm capable of."

"I've looked at your record," Nick said. "I was impressed with what you have done, but that ain't got shit on what I have done."

"We'll just see about that," Marcus said.

Nick started the car and two took off. The moment they left the garage, Nick's cellphone started to ring. The contact said "Cary."

"Hey, little brother," Nick said. "What's going on?"

"Nick, can you come by my dojo soon?" Cary said. "I need to talk to you."

"I'm kind of busy right now," Nick said. "Can you just talk to me about it here?"

"No, it can't wait," Cary said. "I don't know who else to turn to. I usually don't ask for help like this, but it has to do with one of my students."

"Okay, no problem, I'll be by shortly," Nick said.

Nick closed the flip phone.

"Who was that?" Marcus said.

"Why do you care?" Nick said.

"I'm just trying to make conversation," Marcus said.

"That was my brother, he needs us to go to his martial arts school right now," Nick said.

Marcus sat there in silence and confusion, but he was about to join his new partner on this trip. He already felt that he did not like this new partnership already. But only time will tell before anything else comes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding Marcus's interaction with George, it was actually a reference to the fact that George and Whitting were voiced by Christopher Walken.


	5. A Brotherly Matter

After 20 minutes, Nick and Marcus found their way to a martial arts school. Nick's brother Cary owned a lot of establishments, as his dojo had gotten other locations in certain parts of LA. But Cary only taught at one school, and Nick and his new, albeit reluctant partner went into the school to speak to the martial arts instructor.

It was clear that the two detectives didn't get along at first glance, so they spent the entire car ride in dead silence. It would almost seem that this type of environment would be too much for Marcus.

Then again, unlike the general perception of the City of Angels, Marcus was aware that the city had bad parts, like Watts, Compton, Whittier, Florencia, etc. There are bad areas in various parts of the country, as well as the world. So far all he knows, there may even be some bad seeds growing something rotten in this part. With him now having knowledge that a drug that a well-known record producer was dealing now having made it to the other side, it could only get worse from here on in.

"What are we doing here?" This was the first thing that Marcus said since getting in the car with Nick roughly 20 minutes ago.

"This is my brother's school, he said he wants to talk to me about something, so we're just going in to just that," Nick replied. "You don't want to do this? Then get out."

"Man, shut up, let's see what your brother's got to say." It's no secret that Marcus already didn't like Nick, but he wasn't about to let a smart-aleck cop talk down to him like that.

Nick led the way for the two cops to get in. "Cary? It's Nick. Where are you?"

The two cops looked around and saw that it had a yellow padded mat in the center, with some punching bags hanging around. Out from the back area, a Chinese-American man in a jacket and a gi underneath started walking out.

"Nick, there you are," the man said.

"Cary, what's going on? You said that this couldn't wait," Nick said.

"I have something that I need to tell you," Cary said and then looked towards Marcus. "And who is this?"

Marcus replied. "Hello, I'm Detective Marcus Reed. I'm working with your brother on a case."

"He's from New York," Nick quickly interrupted, as Marcus turned his attention to his partner with his eyes squinted a tad.

Cary started talking. "Okay, big brother, I called you here because a student of mine needs some help. You see, one day I noticed that she had a black eye when she came to class one day. I approached her and she told me that it has something to do with her boyfriend."

"So her boyfriend is beating her?" Nick said.

"She didn't say anything about that, but she had told me that her boyfriend got mixed up with the wrong crowd. She said something about her boyfriend dealing in drugs and then got into some heavy stuff, like maybe criminal activity, maybe dealing drugs, I am not sure. But she wouldn't tell me where she got that shiner from."

Marcus stood around and looked at the facility, while the two brothers continued talking.

"I see, can you give me a name of you student?" Nick asked.

Cary responded, "Her name is Vivian Shen."

Out of nowhere, Marcus looked up and turned his attention towards Nick and Cary. "Hold up, did you just say Vivian Shen?"

This had to have been a coincidence or maybe someone with the same name, but then Marcus remembered a letter that he got from a person with that same name. This person noted that she was living in the West Coast. The address came from Los Angeles. This can't be a coincidence, it just can't.

"Yes, I did," Cary said. "Do you know someone with that name?"

"Yes, I do," Marcus said and then pulled out his wallet and found the same picture that she had sent him in the mail. "Is this her?"

The Kang brothers took a closer look at the photo. It was amazing that Marcus not only held onto the photo that he was given, but also had it with him at that very moment.

"How do you know her?" Cary said.

"Let's just say that I had dealt with some shit involving her fucked-up family in NYC," Marcus said.

The last thing he expected was for someone he had crossed paths with was to not only be in the city, but also get mixed up in criminal activity. When Marcus went after the Shadow Tong, he was able to see that this girl was mixed up as she was born into the life, but didn't want to be. That explained why she tried to run away with some weird gothic cult.

"Do you know where we can find this young lady?" Nick said.

"From what I know, she works at a Chinese bistro in Chinatown," Cary said. "But that area is full of Triads."

"I am not afraid of the Triad," Nick said. "Besides, I gained the trust of the Triad at one point."

"Wait, I have a question myself," Marcus butted in. "Has this girl mentioned anything of what her boyfriend is involved in? You mentioned drugs earlier. What drugs is he dealing?"

Cary replied, "She seemed timid when she told me, but she gave me an idea that these guys are bad news. One person who has been assisting me lately as part of her community service probably has some ideas. She has also been helping with the instructing as she is also a martial artist herself. She seems to know about some criminal activity going on."

"Who is this person that we can talk to?" Marcus said.

"Lola Gees," Cary said.

"Hold up, did you say Lola Gees?" Marcus said in a surprised tone. "The same girl from the 'Con Girls' TV show?"

"The very same," Nick said. "But I don't think she wants to talk to me."

"Why is that?" Marcus said.

"Because I busted her for taking part in a heist a while back," Nick said. "A good example of life imitating art, except she thought that she could get away with it until I managed to catch her."

"I heard that she got into some shit, but god damn," Marcus said.

"Well, we'll try to look for this girl soon," Nick said. "In the meantime, my partner and I are going to pay Lola a little visit."

"One more thing, Nick," Cary said. "It seems that Vivian works at that restaurant in the later afternoon to the evening on some days. I think today is one of them. So you and your partner might have a good chance to talk to her."

"Well, Cary, thank you for bringing this to our attention," Nick said. "Now we should get going. Keep me posted if you find anything else."

"You got it, big brother," Cary said.

Marcus turned towards the martial arts teacher. "It was nice meeting you, by the way."

"Same here," Cary said.

The two detectives exited the dojo headed towards Nick's car. Kang started it up while Reed sat in the passenger seat.

Nick drove the car a few blocks. They were on their way to go visit the disgraced actress. The car was full of dead silence again, until…

"So tell me something," Nick said. "You seemed to know my brother's student. You said something about her 'fucked-up family' and all that shit. What happened?"

Marcus then turned his attention towards him with a look on face that said "What kind of question is that?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to make conversation," Nick said. "You don't need to give me that look."

"First of all, why did you have to tell your brother that I'm from New York like that?"

"Because you are from New York."

Marcus replied, "But you didn't need to go out of your way to let him know that. That was kind of rude."

"Okay, sorry I did that," Nick said. "I'm just not used to dealing with people from your neck of the woods."

Marcus looked towards the windshield. "Yeah, I get that and I'm the same way about all you LA people."

A quick silence emerged in that moment, but then Marcus started talking again.

"So you really want to know, huh? I'll tell you," Marcus said. "A while back, I dealt with the Shadow Tong out in Chinatown in Manhattan. That girl in the picture, the same one your brother teaches karate or kung fu, any of that shit, she was the stepsister of this fool who was leading the Tong. This fed I was working with told me about how the original leader had disappeared, but then it turned out he was killed. That girl tried to run away from her stepmother and her stepbrother. She said that they conspired to kill her father, who was the original leader. She even tried to run with a gothic cult or something. After her stepbrother and stepmother, and also the rest of the tong got busted, she moved out here last time I checked. But it seems that the life she led, some of that shit will come back to find her."

What he just said wasn't different than what he was going through. When those assassins tried to kill him, it turned out that they were connected to his old rival from his past. Was that man in LA? What will Marcus do when he sees him? The person who targeted him was still Marcus's motivation, but at the same time, he was going along for the ride to try cracking the case about the dealing of Pop. He still wondered how it even got to the other side of the country.

"Shit, after seeing that picture, I wouldn't have thought that she would look like a goth or anything like that," Nick said. "But you ain't seen nothing yet. Look out your window for example."

Marcus looked out the window and saw a group of Mexican youths with their hands against cars, as well as others lined up with their hands behind their heads and knelt to the ground while uniformed cops were searching them and writing them up.

"LA is the original concrete jungle," Nick said. "You got dealers, bangers, hustlers in various parts of the city. It's not all glitz and glamour. It's fucking wild out here."

"Yeah, yeah, but I know the streets," Marcus said. "Shit's pretty rough out where I'm from."

"Yeah, well, we shall see about that," Nick said. "You know what? We should put some music on."

Nick reached for the radio and it was on a commercial. The commercial that was playing was for a concert that was coming to the Staples Center, as it was an advertisement for the "Smoke Indo" Tour, with Snoop Dogg being the headliner, along with some of his guests like Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Warren G, and more. Another person in the lineup who was heavily promoted was Redman, along with some acts.

It was going to take a bit for these two to get along, but they had only just met. It appeared that Nick didn't really appear fond of any New Yorkers, but Marcus only had one thing on his mind. He wanted to take down Bobby Green.

His superior would rather him not go after the person who wanted him dead, but no one knows where Green was. But it was only a matter of time until either of them were to find out that the other person was in the city. However, Marcus knew that he was in the city, but Bobby didn't.

But that wasn't the problem at the moment. Nick and Marcus were about to go visit someone who may know something. It almost seemed like she could be an informant. They were about to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am slowly getting back into this, so I had to stop here. Don't worry, there will be some action soon.
> 
> I must note that I linked that short story I did of Vivian writing a letter to Marcus to this one. So she is going to be in this story. We didn't know what happened to her after the Shadow Tong story in "True Crime: New York City."
> 
> As for Lola, yes, she is the same character from the "Poor Ending" path in "True Crime: Streets of L.A." For those that don't remember, she gets shot at some point, but being that this story follows the "Good Ending" path, she is alive. So why not put her in? Also, being that she was one of the toughest bosses in that game, I had to make it known that she was a martial artist herself. Besides, the TV show in the game that she was in sounded like an action show, so…well, you get the idea.
> 
> The ad for a concert of Snoop Dogg and Redman is kind of a callback to the two games as Snoop and Redman were unlockable characters in Streets of LA and New York City, respectively.
> 
> Also, when Nick and Marcus passed by the cops dealing with the youths, it was a reference to Training Day when Alonzo and Jake passed by those people who were lined up on the sidewalk.
> 
> I plan to update this more soon.


	6. Gaining Information

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick and Marcus go and try to get some information for some informants who may know a thing or two.

It wasn't long until Nick and Marcus pulled up in front of a house in the middle of a suburban area. For someone who used to be in a hit TV show but was then cancelled, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise how far this person fell after that. Not to say that all famous people or rich people have to live lavishly.

It's often stereotyped that Californians all know celebs and live near beaches, when the state is much bigger than that and has a lot more cities than Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. Hell, not all of LA is all glitz and glamour the way the media presents it.

The two detectives exit the yellow sports car and walked down the sidewalk towards the potential informant's home. All they were told was that she may possibly know something about the drug. Then again, some informants know more about what goes on than others. But they were about to find out.

"So this is Lola's spot, huh?" Marcus said. "Man, seems like the mighty fall a lot out here, huh?"

Nick responded. "Well, that's what happens when some celebrities get caught up some shit."

"I hear that," Marcus said. "I even once came across someone who wanted to be an actress or singer, but then she became a personal trainer for some Italian Mafioso or some shit. Let's go see what this girl has to say."

Being that Nick had busted Lola for taking part in a bank heist at some point, Marcus offered to knock on her door. He figured that Nick was the last person she would want to see anyway. So he went up and knocked on the door.

A female voice uttered, "Who is it?"

"It's the police, we just want to ask you some questions," Marcus said.

"Go away! I have nothing to say to you."

"Please, open up, we just have some questions to ask."

"Listen, just go away. I don't want to talk to you."

Marcus knocked a few times again. The door started to open. Nick signaled to his partner to move out of the way.

"Look, I'm telling you for the last time, I…" A woman stood in the doorway after the door opened. "What the…?" But had jumped and her eyes widened at the sight of what was in front of her.

"Hello, Lola, miss me?" Nick stood right in the doorway.

"You again, Kang? What the hell do you want?" Lola said. When Lola was on the show, she had her hair cut really short and dyed pink. But it's been a few years since the cancellation. Her hair was short but a little longer and the color looked more natural, as it appeared blonde. She was dressed like she had just rolled out of bed not too long ago. Also, what was noticeable was the bracelet that she had around her ankle. That could only mean one thing.

"Whoa, easy there, tiger," Nick said. "My partner and I want to ask you some questions."

Right when he said that, Marcus had walked inside.

"Yeah right, you're just gonna bust my shit like you always do," Lola said. "And who is this?" She said in a mildly seductive tone.

"I am Detective Marcus Reed of the PDNY. I am here to help out on a case."

Lola looked at him and gained a small smirk as her eyes shifted up and down. "I see now."

"Cut the bullshit, Lola," Nick said. "My partner and I are here to ask you a bunch of questions."

"What makes you think that I know anything?" Lola said.

"Oh come on, Lola, you seem to have an ear to the street and also have some idea on what's going on around here. Plus, even though you're locked up in your own home, it's not like you can't get any information."

What was said was true. Even when someone is locked up or on house arrest, sometimes the felon may have connections and a way to get information. Like Marcus's father for example. His father was in jail, but he still had power and influence to the outside.

"Says who?" the disgraced actress said.

"Let's just say a little bird told me," Nick said as he reached for his pocket and got out a little bag. "Do you know anything about this type of drug here? My partner here had busted some people in New York for pushing this shit on the streets."

Lola took a closer look. "Okay, Kang. From what I see, this is a new designer drug, at least out here. I have heard a little bit about this drug."

"Funny how you know stuff when you can't even leave your house," Nick sarcastically said.

"Hey, shut up, I have no choice but to be your snitch," Lola said. "Good thing I got house arrest and I can leave only to do my community service. It's hard to believe you and Cary are brothers."

"Well, my brother is a much nicer guy than I am," Nick said. "At least you're teaching kids and others martial arts. That's actually a smart thing for you to do."

Lola replied. "What else can I do? You're lucky that I like your brother, otherwise I would kick your ass like I almost did that one time."

"I'm lucky? You're lucky didn't get that much time for assaulting a police officer and almost doesn't mean shit in this situation," Nick said. "I still busted your ass. It's too bad your stripper buddy got away. She was a fast driver. The fact that you're on house arrest for taking part in a heist is too much of a stretch even for a scumbag like you. At least some of my backup snatched the rest of the crew."

"What does Gypsy have to do with this?" Lola said. "I am doing all this stuff for you so that I can get my anklet off and start over. Don't give me any shit about what I did, okay?"

"Enough, you two!" Marcus intervened and then faced Lola. "Look, I just want to know one thing. You see, this drug was about to plague to streets of Harlem and other parts of Manhattan. This shit was originated by the Yakuza. Somehow this drug came out here. All I want to know is who is supplying all of this shit out here. Who is the main supplier and what is their endgame?"

Lola looked at Marcus like she knew that he was not messing around. Though Nick can be no-nonsense himself, but he also talked down to some people. Marcus, on the other hand, wanted to get on with the case.

Lola had no choice but to answer the question. "This drug, from what I heard, is being moved by some Russians, who are also looking to other street gangs to spread it. I don't know who the main guy is, but this one girl who I have instructed, it seems that her boyfriend is dealing this drug."

Marcus busted out the photo once again. "Is this the girl?"

Lola took a closer look at the picture. "Yes, that's her. Why do you have a picture of her? Do you know her?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Marcus said. "We've met before. None of that's important right now. Do you know where we can find her?"

Lola replied, "Hold up, I don't know her that well."

Nick said, "Well you got to know if you know that her boyfriend is pushing that drug. Cary told me that you might know something."

"Okay, okay." Lola took a deep breath. "Just know this, Kang. I hope you talk to the judge and my lawyer sometime soon about getting this anklet off me soon. I hope that this is worth it. I don't know where to find Vivian. Some days she works at a restaurant, but then I started to think that she has some other side shit that she does. I heard that on some nights she is the flag waver on the street-racing circuit. I think Gypsy takes part in those races, and so does Vivian's boyfriend. That's all I know."

"You still talk to Gypsy, huh?" Nick said. "Does she still shake her ass on stage?"

"Yes, you'll find her at the Body Fantastique," Lola said.

"Well, looks we're getting the VIP treatment," Nick said. "I am also surprised that you're selling your friend out like this."

"I'm just telling you what you need to know about the drugs," Lola said. "That's all. That girl must know something."

Marcus said. "If you said this stripper is dancing tonight, then this could be some way for me to get closer to the racing action. After all, I broke up a street-racing circuit out in NYC. Shit, I'm the fucking champion, too. So maybe if your stripper friend and Vivian's boyfriend have anything to do with the racing, I have a way to get close."

"You, a racing champion?" Nick said. "I thought that it's hard to drive out in New York."

"Hey, man, shut up," Marcus said. "Look, I think I know a way to get in if that were the case. Maybe that girl Gypsy can find a connection so that I can get close to Vivian. She has to know something about the drugs. We need to get it off the streets. That shit will fry your brain."

"Okay, sounds like you got a plan," Nick said and then looked to Lola. "Thanks for all your help."

Lola scoffed. "Don't mention it. If I find anything else, I will call you, Kang."

"Looking forward to it, Lola," Nick said.

The two detectives left the informant's home. After they entered Nick's car, Nick had one thing to say.

"This feels too easy for all of us," Nick said. "We might crack this case soon and you'll be back in New York in no time."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Marcus said. "There is something missing in the puzzle. We about to find out what it is whether we like it or not."

"I have to hand it to you, Reed," Nick said. "You show a lot of resiliency in catching perps."

"You don't know the half of it…Kang." Marcus replied.

As soon as Nick started the car, the radio dispatcher had reported:

_"Attention, all units. Suspicious behavior has been seen around a neighborhood in Santa Monica. It's reason to believe that someone is in possession of narcotics or firearms. Please approach with caution."_

"Drugs? You thinking what I'm thinking?" Nick said.

"Exactly, but don't we need a warrant to do this?" Marcus asking this seemed a bit redundant as he had taken down multiple crime rings, with or without a warrant. Though warrants were issued once he got close to the big fishes of the robbery, prostitution, counterfeiting, and drug rings. Not to mention that he almost got killed when taking down some of the bigger crimes of those four crime rings.

"Not in this case," Nick said. "Besides, I know someone out there who I had busted a while back for dealing, but he cleaned up his act, or so he says. Let's take a ride."

"Where are we going?" Marcus asked.

"You'll see." Nick said.

Nick's alleged contact was out in Santa Monica and that wasn't far from where they were.

* * *

They finally arrived to their destination, which was an auto shop in Santa Monica. It was called "Discount Tire."

"Let's see what your boy's got to say," Marcus said.

"Let's find out," Nick said.

The moment they walked in, a middle-aged balding blonde man looked over at the two detectives.

"Shit, Kang, what are you doing here?" the man said. "I ain't done shit."

"Easy, Francis, we're not here for you," Nick said. "My partner and I are looking for Jojo."

"Jojo? Oh, you mean Joey," Francis said. "Man, he is out havin' a smoke."

"Thanks for the tip," Nick slyly said as Marcus followed him. Francis turned around and watched as the two walked towards the back-alley area with a look of derision on his face.

Nick and Marcus walked into the back area and saw a man who appeared to be in his mid-20s out having a cigarette with a couple of coworkers.

"Hey, Jojo," Nick said.

In that moment, the young man dropped his cigarette and the other two employees looked up.

"Fuck, it's the po-po!" one of the guys said.

"Relax, gentlemen," Nick said. "I'm just here to talk to Jojo."

Marcus then looked at him.

"Excuse me, I mean we are here to talk to Jojo. You two, just skedaddle on back inside."

The other two employees went back inside as Jojo watched them walk away.

"What the fuck do you want, Kang?" Jojo said. "You can't come around my job like this, that's harassment!"

"I'm just checking up on you," Nick said.

Marcus added. "My partner here thinks you might know something about the newest drug that hit the streets. Are you a chemist? Cutting drugs and shit like that?"

"I don't know nothing about that," Jojo said. "I'm out of the drug business."

"You know nothing, huh?" Nick said. "Then what are you into?"

"Rubber, rubber, rubber!" Jojo replied. "I'm fully legit now."

"Legit, my ass," Marcus said. "I've seen guys like this where I'm from. Not all of them stay straight."

"Man, how the hell did you even get in here without a warrant?" Jojo said.

"Let's just say that Francis and I have some history," Nick said. "I was told about a drug deal going down at a Mick's somewhere close by yesterday. Do you know anything?"

"You really think that I know anything about that shit? Get the fuck out of here," Jojo said.

Nick pulled out the photo that was given to him sometime recently, which depicted the dealer giving someone the drug. Marcus then looked at the picture himself.

"Okay, I ain't into that shit no more," Jojo said. "I don't know shit about nothin', you hear?"

Nick and Marcus looked at each other with slight disbelief.

"Man, I don't need this shit," Jojo said and then turned around and walked back inside.

"You know, I busted your ass a while back," Nick said. "You could at least just keep an eye out for this."

Jojo turned around towards them. "Listen, I'm out of that shit. I'm trying to be on the straight path."

"Okay, but you better not be bullshitting us," Marcus said.

Jojo looked directly at Marcus. "You're partnered with this guy, huh? Just know one thing, be very careful and I would get out of here as soon as possible. This is one crazy motherfucker."

Nick let out a slight snicker. "I'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much. Come on, let's go."

They left the tire and auto shop. Marcus started talking.

"What makes you so sure that this guy was hiding something?"

Nick responded as he was about to enter the driver's seat. "This guy did some time for cooking up meth and cooking heroin. Guys like that don't change their tune just like that."

"I hear that, but you'd be surprised that some people get their acts together," Marcus said as he was about to enter, but then he looked up. Right at the corner of Colorado Avenue and 4th Street, there stood a suspicious looking person. He stood right close to the Beach Mini Mart.

"Hey, Nick, let me see that picture again," Marcus said. Nick took out the photo and then Marcus took a closer look at the photo. Even with the photo being shot from a distance, the guy in the picture looked like the guy who was standing in the corner.

"I think that's the guy," Marcus said. Nick looked up and got out his camera to zoom in.

"Shit, you're right," Nick said. "Partner, you call it in. This guy's mine."

_Man, why do I got to do this shit?_ Marcus said. But nonetheless, he picked up the radio. "I got a suspicious person on Colorado and 4th. My partner and I may need assistance, over."

Nick started running towards the suspect. The light was green as traffic was driving down Colorado Ave with the light on 4th St. being red.

Nick fired a warning shot and flashed his badge. "EOD! Hold it right there!"

The man was Caucasian and was wearing shades and dressed in a leather vest with a black shirt and dark blue pants. The moment he heard Nick call towards him, he got out a pistol from behind him and pulled the trigger a couple of times. Gunshots were fired and Nick quickly jumped to the ground.

Marcus was still right by the car and got on the radio once again. "Shots were fired. Please respond to this, over."

But he was not about to watch his partner go after him alone. The New York detective got out his piece and started running towards Nick, who had gotten up and started running towards the dealer.

Nick ran as fast as he could and fired his weapon towards the man, but none of the bullets connected. From a distance, the guy got out a phone. The man stopped for a bit, which opened a window for Nick, and also Marcus, to run after him.

The man started talking in Russian. ["Hey, some fucking pig is after me. I need to you to meet me somewhere on Colorado Avenue. I'll tell you where to meet me. Just hurry the fuck up!"]

He hung up and saw Nick going towards him. He continued to fire his gun towards him. The suspect turned around and saw a woman who was getting out of the nearby building and happened to walk right into this.

"Oh shit!" the woman yelled. The man, however, had other ideas. He grabbed the poor woman and put her in a stranglehold.

"Fuck off, you pig! Or else I blow this lady's head off!" the suspect said.

But Nick wasn't about to back down. He drew one of his Desert Eagles, with the other one in his right hand. The man tried to squirm a bit, causing the woman to move her body a bit and then pressed the barrel right against her head.

However, Marcus had crossed the street and stood behind a tree. He had the suspect and his hostage in his sights. He drew his .45 and took a close look to aim better. The suspect's legs were moving backwards, dragging his hostage with him.

_Steady, ready, fire!_ Marcus pulled the trigger and the bullet pierced right into the man's right quad. The man howled in agonizing pain and quickly released the woman but not without firing a more rounds into the air. The woman quickly made a break from the suspect as Nick ran towards them.

"Lady, are you alright?" Nick said.

"Thank you so much," the woman said and then ran to get out of there.

Nick slowly walked towards the man. Marcus had his weapon pointed right at the downed suspect.

But this man didn't want to cooperate, as he grabbed his pistol and pointed his gun towards Nick, but then felt an impact against his right hand as Marcus stormed right in and kicked the pistol right of his hand. Nick swooped in as he saw the gun right close to the man's left hand and then stepped right on his left hand to the sounds of another scream.

"How does that feel?" Nick said.

"Fuck you, pig!" the criminal said.

"Yeah, yeah, that's music to my ears," Nick said. "I hear you got some Pop on you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the criminal said.

Marcus helped him get to his feet and then searched the man's vest and pockets and found a stash of that drug.

"Weeeellll," Marcus said as he flashed the bag of drugs right to his face. "Then explain how this got into your pockets."

The criminal sighed, as squad cars pulled up and many uniformed cops had their pistols pointed right him.

From a distance, a black car had pulled over and saw that the cops were now taking the guy in.

"Looks like the pigs had got him," said one of the men. They appeared to be Russian gangsters. "What should we do?"

"Don't worry, Sergei may have been stupid to shoot at cops, but he's not stupid to tell him what we're doing," the other man said. "Besides, the boss knows what to do if he rats us out."

The car then took off and made a U-turn to get out of there. Marcus looked up and looked at the car taking off. It had parked there not long ago, but now took off. To him, it didn't seem like someone picked the wrong street to turn on.

But at that point, the two detectives had found some evidence. It was now time to bring it to the precinct.

* * *

**25 minutes later.**

Nick and Marcus got back to the precinct. Chief Parks and Rosie approached them.

"Hey, Nick, Marcus, did you find any leads?" Chief said.

"Well, we busted some crook who had some drugs on him," Nick said. "But other than that, we got a tip on something."

"What kind of tip?" Rosie said.

Marcus added. "Someone told us about some street-racing that goes on around the city, that maybe a dealer in that drug takes part in that stuff. I got a tip that some girl's boyfriend has gotten her caught up in some shit. It seems that he has been dealing and racing."

"Street-racing?" Chief said. "You know, this could also be broken up, but with someone who could get us closer to the supplier, this could be something big."

"There's one catch, though," Nick said. "We were told that a stripper named Gypsy takes part in those races. One of us has to go in and find her so we can get some info." He noticed Rosie standing there. "Hey, maybe Rosie can go undercover there and find some stuff for us."

"Ohhhh nooo," Rosie quickly replied. "I'm not going undercover as a stripper. I can't do all of that, but if I have to, I could try going undercover as a waitress."

"Oh come on, Rosie," Nick said. "You said you want to get back on the streets. This could be your ticket."

"Hold up," Marcus said. "I know a way. Maybe one of us can go over there and try to convince the racer girl to get in."

"Not a bad idea," Chief said. "You know, your lieutenant sent me your file and she even told me that you had broken up a street-racing circuit in NYC."

"Wait, Dixon said that?" Marcus said. "Well, she is right about that."

"I think I have an idea for you two," Chief said. "Or you three. Nick and Marcus, you two can go to the strip club and ask for that one girl. Rosie can try applying as a waitress to get some info."

Rosie interrupted. "What about the drugs?"

Chief Parks said. "Well, that one guy who Nick and Marcus busted isn't talking, but I did find something on him. It said his name is Sergei Levko. He had been taken in for drug and arms dealing, but he is not talking about who he is working for."

"I found something suspicious earlier," Marcus said. "Two guys were in a car. After we got into it with that guy, these guys were watching us and then just took off. Maybe he might know those two guys."

"Well, we're not done with this guy just yet," Nick said. "I think I can get him to talk. I have another guy who is working with us right now. I think I'll give him a call."

Marcus added. "I don't know. This guy may have dealt in some stuff, but he doesn't seem like he is up the food chain. He may know more, but not that much more."

Rosie added, "You sure about that?"

"Those guys, while they weren't stupid to get into it with us," Marcus said. "They might bail him out soon for all we know, but sometimes gangs don't live by the loyalty and family code. Some of them live by the code of "failure is not an option" and for all we know, they might get him and take care of him."

He had a good point in that statement. Rosie looked at him with a slight look of suspicion. Not so much that she though that he was in with them, but rather that he knew the code of the streets. Rosie had run with Mexican gangs in her day before turning a new leaf. So maybe there was a sign that Marcus's knowledge was based on something else besides research.

Meanwhile, Nick had made a call.

"Hey, Ray, this is Detective Kang," Nick said. "I need to ask you something. Can you tell me the description of your dealer? I think we got someone you may know in the hot seat."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm going to stop it right here. I have plans for the next chapter. Gypsy was the name of a stripper in Streets of LA who appeared in a mission for the "Poor Ending" path. Francis was the guy from the tire/auto shop that Nick busted, but he is not going to play that big of a role. He might appear again, but that's about it.
> 
> As for the character of Jojo, he is a composite character of Jojo from the first Bad Boys film and Stucky from the first Rush Hour film. They were both reluctant informants who were trying to go straight.
> 
> I also had to do research for actual streets and locations being the game had done a good amount of the LA map, just like how New York City had done the map of Manhattan.


	7. A Little Detour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosie joins Marcus in gaining some extra intel at a strip club, while Nick went to do his own investigation.

Hours had passed since Nick and Marcus had busted a potential pusher of Pop. Night had fallen, but the day was not over yet.

For the special guest partner, it had not been a full day since he had gotten to Los Angeles. But what was different was that this wasn't a day of babysitting and sightseeing for him. He was there to do his job, even though the person he was after hadn't been seen yet.

But only time was going to tell when their paths would cross, and it was not a matter of if they will cross, but when they will cross. For all he knew, he may be connected.

At that moment, it was time to get close to the action. During that time, Nick had approached the chief to tell her an idea he had. Being that Marcus wanted to go to the strip club to gain intel on that stripper, as well as Rosie going undercover as an applicant, whether it's as a dancer or a waitress. Nick wanted to check out a particular restaurant in Chinatown. He had an idea which restaurant it could be, so he was up for going on his own for this.

Plus, being that Rosie wanted in on this case as well as getting back in action, this was her chance.

Nick took the yellow car to the Chinese bistro. Marcus was left with Rosie, who drove him to her apartment so that she could change into some clothes to blend in with the surroundings. The only thing he did was change from his black leather jacket with the red symbol on the back to a red jacket with a Chinese symbol on the back, as well as changed his shirt that he wore underneath. He felt the need to wear something different.

Marcus waited in the living room for Rosie to get dressed. It was crazy that he was doing this as he barely had any contact with her the whole day.

"Nice place you got here," he said.

"Just make yourself at home," she said. "I won't be long."

In that moment, Marcus got out his Motorola cellphone and made a call to someone.

"Hello?" a male voice said.

"Hey, Pop. It's Marcus, you find anything?"

"Nah, son, not yet. Some of my men had gone out of our turf to take a look at what B.G.'s crew had been up to. Those guys usually rule Harlem and also have some influence out in the Bronx. None of them are going to try going out to Queens or Brooklyn to see what's up."

"Shit, I ain't asking for them search all over NYC to see if any of them are around. I just want to know what they plotting." Marcus said. "My new partner and I got into some shit earlier. I also found out that a girl I had dealt with in the past is now here and got into some shit out here, too."

"A girl? What girl?" Isaiah said.

"Some girl who was connected to the Shadow Tong," Marcus said. "The sister of the leader."

"Man, those guys ain't nothing now," Isaiah said. "Last I heard, you busted those guys, along with some other gangs."

"That's not the point," Marcus said. "Anyway, please just continue to find out what's been up. For all we know, some of Bobby's guys will gunning for your guys out in the streets. Just tell your men to watch their backs."

"You know I'll do that, son," Isaiah said. "I know you and Bobby have a lot of history of bad blood, but if there's one thing that Bobby will never be is his dad. I know Omar and I had our differences, but he was a real leader. Bobby is just a psycho who thinks fear is power. I'll be in touch soon. Hang in there."

"I will, later, pops," Marcus then hung up.

Right after Marcus was done talking to his father, Rosie had come out in a miniskirt and a blouse. She had gotten done getting ready to join Marcus on this case. She looked like she was ready to go clubbing, except this wasn't a dance club. It was a strip club, but she may have a way to let the owner know what is up.

Rosie drove again and the two rode in dead silence.

"So…," Rosie tried to break the silence. "I was wondering something about what you said earlier."

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Marcus said.

"You said something about the code of the streets," Rosie said. "You said something about how not all gangs have the whole loyalty and family code anymore and how some will punish their own gang members for failing something. I mean I know how it can work sometimes, especially when someone may turn on other members, but then you have the ones who will turn their backs on you if they feel you're going soft."

"Wow, you seem to know your shit," Marcus said. "I used to say that 'motherfuckers with no loyalty don't deserve to live.' Well, even the most loyal people out there end up getting smoked."

"Well, let me tell you one thing," Rosie said. "I wasn't always a cop."

"Really?" Just then, Marcus realized that this woman may not be so different than him.

"I used to run with some gangs in my youth," Rosie said. "I had not always lived a good life, but at some point, the life just wasn't cutting it for me, so I went a different route. That's how I became a cop. I went to the academy, became a beat cop, and after becoming a detective, I was recruited to work for the EOD and here I am."

A slight smile grew on Marcus's face when he heard that. It turned out that this woman was no different than him.

"So tell me a little about yourself," Rosie said.

"You want to know, huh?" Marcus said. "Well, I wasn't always a cop either. In fact, I used to run with my dad's gang when I was younger."

"Your dad? Your dad ran a gang?" Rosie said.

"He runs a gang." Marcus corrected her. "He's still alive. He's just locked up."

"Oh," Rosie said. "My mistake."

"Yeah, well, it gets more complicated than that," Marcus said. "But what I will say is that thanks to my dad's closest friend, a detective, at that, he took me under his wing and I turned over a new leaf. Here I am."

It was crazy that he told her all of this. Marcus had only met Rosie that morning and the day hadn't ended yet. He wasn't sure if he should trust her with this information. But having been told about her past, she volunteered that information, so it was only fair that he would do the same thing.

"Just wondering," Rosie said. "But did you ever have any former friends or fellow gang members go after you?"

"No. With my dad running shit, he got all of his guys to back off. Even though we were on different sides of the law, I was still his son and he didn't want to cause any trouble. Shit, it was even crazy to think that his best friend was a cop."

He didn't share that his mentor was crooked. He didn't want to go deeper at that point.

"So tell me, how did _you_ become a cop?"

Rosie replied. "It wasn't easy. I was only in the gang life as a youth, but when I saw that the crime life wasn't worth it, I decided to become a cop. Many of my ex-friends weren't happy. I even busted a few and some even tried to gun for me."

"You know, I've heard about the gang life in LA," Marcus said. "At least when dealing with Mexican gangs, they don't take kindly to anybody leaving the life. Especially when you know that some prison gangs hold a lot of weight on the streets."

"Well, lucky for me, things don't work out that way out here, at least not with women," she said. "I wasn't that deep into the gang life. Some women will run with gangs, but they aren't always full-on members. Plus, I was mostly in an all-girl gang, but we had our connections with some even more hardcore gangs. We didn't get into too many heavy things, but we got close. At some point, I got busted as a teen and then I paid the price and I decided to enforce the law rather than break it. I may have dealt with some former friends wanting me dead and stuff, but never have I experienced some shot-callers putting a hit out on me or anything like that."

It took quite a bit for them to get to Hollywood where The Body Fantastique was. But it wasn't bad as Marcus saw that Rosie had lived the crime life before. However, she didn't need to know about anything else. Those two had only just met, but for Marcus, he had gone even deeper into the gang life, especially when years prior, he had gone after a fellow gang member who had double-crossed him and his father and was nearly killed in the process.

But he left that life behind him, even though his father would ask him to do favors for him, which made Marcus question his standing with the law at times.

They finally arrived to the strip club on Hollywood Boulevard. They got out of Rosie's car and headed for the door. They paid their way to get in. Rosie was about to go in and try to talk turkey with the owner of the place, while Marcus was about to get a lap dance from a specific stripper.

Music was blaring over the speakers, with "Nasty Girl" from Kasino and Nite & Day playing and some girls dancing on stage and in cages. This establishment had strippers dancing on small stages on the sides, as well as the cages, and of course, the main stage in the center. There were also flashing colored lights on the floor. There was a lot of room in this establishment.

Marcus whispered into Rosie's ear, "You go find the owner and handle him. I need to go find Gypsy."

Rosie nodded her head and they split up. Marcus went around and saw various people in the gentleman's club. It was only during the week, but it seemed like a happening place in spite of it.

Marcus went to the bar and turned his attention to one of the bartenders.

"Hey, do you know where I can find Gypsy?"

The bartender looked at him and looked ahead and pointed her out to him. She was dancing on dancing on stage. She had a tan and her hair looked like it was dyed bright red. She looked like she was Hispanic, maybe Mexican and she had tattoos on both of her arms and on her stomach, particularly around her belly button. She was wearing a red bikini on stage and also cowboy boots.

That's the racer girl? He thought, but then again, the former champion of the racing circuit in NYC had a similar look and was also the person who ran the circuit. She had to be quite a driver if she took part in a heist that Nick busted.

Meanwhile, Rosie asked the other bartender if she could find Pete, the owner of the strip club.

"Why do you need to see him?" the bartender asked.

"I want to get a job here and I want to talk to him," she said. She then turned around and saw an overweight guy with a beard and looked like he was balding and yelling at a bouncer.

"He's right there if you need to talk to him," the bartender said.

Rosie saw that this guy looked like he was having a bad night. Maybe she could use this to her advantage. But what was her endgame? Marcus was there to get information, but something about this guy rubbed her the wrong way.

It was initially supposed to be Nick who took Marcus, but he had plans of his own. Rosie wanted in on the case and had another idea for undercover work, except she may need to find someone to work with her on this case.

Rosie took off to the restroom and unbuttoned a few buttons from her shirt, as well as unbuttoned the bottom and tied the shirt to look sexy for this guy. She didn't find this guy appealing, but being around a bunch of naked women, as well as waitresses who only wore slightly more, there had to be a way to appeal to him.

Marcus sat around until he saw Gypsy get off the stage, but she wasn't headed towards the back. She got off the stage as it appeared like she was ready to dance some more. Marcus got up and walked up to her. She looked up right at him.

"Hey there, handsome, you want a lap-dance?" she said in a seductive tone.

"Hell yeah, but you think maybe we can get the private rooms?"

"That will cost more, but I think I can give you a little discount," Gypsy said. "Follow me, sugar."

Marcus followed the stripper, as he had an ulterior motive in all of this. It was going to be a slow burn for him to get close to the supplier, but he had to find a way.

Gypsy led the way to the VIP room. The curtains closed and Marcus paid the girl and the music started, which was "I Wanna Rock" from Luke.

Marcus said there and watched as she gyrated her body all over him. He smiled but looked away a few times.

"What's wrong, honey?" Gypsy said. "Aren't you having fun?"

Knowing the rules of a place like that, Marcus put his hands behind his back and Gypsy straddled her legs on both of his sides as she moved her body backwards.

"You certainly move pretty fast, don't you?" Marcus said.

"Oh, honey, you don't know what fast is," Gypsy said. "By the way, is that a gun in your pants?"

Marcus replied, "No, I'm just happy to see you. What's your name?"

"They call me Gypsy."

"I can see why. You certainly know how to move fast and got a quick way with your magic."

"What is your name, handsome?"

Marcus replied. "Jimmy Mac."

"Well, you said that I'm fast, wait until you see what I can do out of here," Gypsy said.

"Hold up, I'm not trying to…"

"What? No, I don't mean that. I got other ways of being fast, like on the road."

"Oh, are you a racer?" Marcus said.

"As a matter of fact I am," Gypsy said seductively.

"Well, in that case, I was wondering how I can get in," Marcus said.

"Oh, you want to race?" Gypsy said. "Well, give me your number and I can let you know how to get in. I got a race this Friday and I would like to show you around. You think you can drive?"

Marcus had gotten through to her. He got out a piece of paper and wrote it down while she danced topless in front of him. The dance was almost over and she picked up her top and put it on. Marcus handed her the piece of paper, while she ripped the paper in half and got the pen and wrote down her number.

"This is in case if, you know, you want some other action," Gypsy said and raised her eyebrows twice. "Handsome."

She was done and walked away but turned her attention towards Marcus again and smiled and winked at him. He was not about to fall for it because while he was aware that some strippers may go home with some patrons, she could have been flirting in that sense or may possibly be luring him into a trap. It was also known that strippers have to be flirty towards patrons, so he was being a professional in that situation.

* * *

**MEANWHILE…**

Rosie followed Pete to his office.

"After you," he said. Rosie walked in and was met with a slap to her rear end. It didn't take long for her to figure out what kind of guy he was.

Once they went inside, she noticed that his office was rather messy, with clutter all over his desk, as well as what looked like a bag of cocaine on it. She had him all figured out. First the slap to her behind and a bag of cocaine on the desk, then noticed what looked like a couple of bags with different narcotics.

One bag contained what appeared to be Ecstasy. The other was full of the same drugs that Marcus and Nick were after. The bag of coke made her believe that he was a coked-out scumbag, but the other drugs? It was clear he didn't have them to use.

Then it hit her. She came with another plan.

"So, missy, I hear you want to be a waitress," Pete said. "But I look at you and I think you got a body to flaunt on stage. Can you dance?"

"Call me Raquel," Rosie said. "And I'm not really here to apply for a job as a waitress or a dancer. I heard that you deal Pop. I was wondering if I can get in on the action."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You see, I want to buy some of your supply that I see right there," she said. "You and I can work together."

"Lady, you don't see nothing, okay?" He then got his bag of coke and took some of out and snorted it right from his finger. So the part about him being coked-out wasn't a stretch after all.

"I am a businesswoman and I was told by a Sergei Levko about this drug. I can try getting this stuff not just on the streets around here, but maybe we can do a lot of business out in Vegas, Miami, you name it. All you got to tell is who the supplier is."

"Can't do that, lady." But then he came up with another idea, as he grew a creepy smile on his face. "Unless you do something for me." And then reached for the waistband of his pants and started undoing his belt.

Rosie didn't even have to guess where he was coming from. This guy was disgusting. She didn't mean that he was unattractive, but with him working at a strip club and slapping her butt, as well as high on cocaine, she knew what kind of man he was.

"No, I don't do that," Rosie said. "I'm leaving. If you don't want to give me the name of your supplier, then I am out of here."

"Okay, wait," Pete said. "That guy Sergei you mentioned, he told me about this drug and I had some people try this stuff out. He tends to work for some big Russian gangster. I don't know his name, but he is working on reopening the Gulag."

_Wait, the Gulag?_ She thought. She remembered that some Russian gangsters that Nick went after a few years prior ran that establishment.

"Well, maybe I can talk with them," she said. "I don't have cards on me, but I could write down my phone number so that you can tell some of the dealers about this." She then wrote down her number on a piece of paper. "Then we can do business."

What was surprising to her about all of this was that he didn't force himself onto her. Was he that high on the white powder that he didn't go through with it? Or was he scared of the Russians? No one knew.

Rosie then left the owner's office. She winged that whole conversation that entire time. Now she just needed to find someone to work with her in this undercover assignment.

At that point, Marcus left the VIP area of the strip club and met up with Marcus.

"Hey, so what do you got?" Marcus said.

"I'll explain to you in a bit, we got to get going," Rosie said. "What about you?"

"I'll tell you in the car. Let's bounce."

But then the music went to a halt, as the announcer made an announcement.

"Okay, everybody, we got a new girl making her debut at the Body Fantastique! Everybody, put your hands together for the sultry Jade Diamond!"

It would make sense for the two detectives to leave, but they turned around and saw someone come out from behind the curtains to get on the stage. She wore a white blouse that was tied in a knot halfway, exposing her cleavage and midriff, as well as a miniskirt. Just then, "Beep" from Pussycat Dolls and will. started blaring on the speakers, as the girl gyrated and took off her skirt and then undid her shirt. She turned around and she appeared to be Asian, particularly of Chinese descent. She had a tattoo on her stomach, but it was lower than her navel, unlike Gypsy and was close to the thong that she was wearing.

Marcus took a closer look. _Vivian?!_ It was the first thing that came to mind.

But he was not about to blow his cover, neither was Rosie. So they bolted out of the strip club right then. Marcus walked fast and looked to the ground and breathed a few times as Rosie followed him.

"Marcus, what's wrong?" Rosie said but to no answer.

From a distance, a couple of black guys were standing around near the exterior of the strip club where the posters of the naked woman silhouettes were. One of them took a closer look at the two cops leaving.

The moment they got into her car, the first thing that came out of his mouth was "I know that girl on stage."

Rosie said, "Wait, what? Are you talking about the girl who just started dancing just now?"

"Yeah, her."

"This sounds like maybe you're shocked about this."

"You don't get it," Marcus said. "When Kang and I were talking to some people earlier, one of the informants told me that she had something to do with the races, as that stripper I talked to told me about it and that the girl's boyfriend takes part in them, as well as deals Pop. I didn't think that she would start stripping."

"How do you know her?"

Marcus then turned towards Rosie and took a deep breath.

From the outside, the same two guys from before walked slowly towards Rosie's car and looked towards the passenger seat.

"Hey, is that…?" one of the guys said.

"I don't know," the other guy said. "I don't think so."

"You think we should tell Bobby about this?"

"Nah, I don't think it's him. Don't worry about it. Why would he be here? Besides, he told some of our guys out in New York to go smoke him and his pops, as well as any of the other members of the King's Posse. That fool ain't got nowhere else to go. Come on, let's go."

Back in the car, Rosie was speechless as to what she had just heard. It was clear that Marcus knew the girl, but to what extent did he know her.

"I thought she would keep herself out of trouble, but with the life she lived, especially with her pops running the Tong, as well as her asshole stepbrother running it, it always comes back to find her."

"Marcus, I know I don't know you, but I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about this. For all we know, she may be stripping because of money. Besides, I don't think she is getting pimped out or anything like that."

"Yeah, but something must be an issue, but we just need to find out what it is."

Rosie started the car and they took off.

* * *

**CHINATOWN**

Nick took off that same evening to check out a particular restaurant. He called his brother Cary earlier for him to get the address. He was told that it was located on Broadway Street and Bernard Street. Why did that address seem familiar to him?

He pulled up in his sports car and he looked up.

She works at THIS place? The place was indeed familiar to him. It is run by the Triads. Not that he believed that she would get caught up with them. Hope she never went into the back area of the place.

Unlike that one time he went by there, it looked like there were people dining there that night. He went up to the door and went inside. He walked up to the hostess.

"Hello, may I help you?" the hostess said in a Chinese accent.

"Yes, I am here to see if Vivian Shen is working tonight," Nick said.

"Excuse me, sir?" the hostess said in a confused tone. "Vivian?"

"Yes, I have an important date with her and I wanted to surprise her at her job," Nick said as he tried to walk through.

"Sir, this restaurant is reservations only," the hostess said and then got a gun from behind the desk, but kept it out of sight from anybody who was nearby. It was true that this restaurant was run by the Triads.

"Besides, Vivian no longer works here. She quit last week."

Several staff members came out and looked at Nick a certain way. They were familiar with him, but they weren't about to ruin any patrons' night like this, so they signaled to him that he leave.

Nick walked out the door and a voice was heard that said "NICK! NICK KANG!"

"Huh?" Nick was shocked at what he heard.

"What you find cannot be found here. You must try elsewhere." The voice said.

_Hey, I know that voice._ Nick thought. "Wu, is that you?"

"You must go, Nicholas. Farewell." The voice said.

Nick wasn't sure if it was just a voice within or if the presence of a man he had encountered before was talking to him. In either case, nothing was to be found there.

But then, RING! RING! Nick immediately picked up the phone.

"Rosie, what's going on? I couldn't find the girl."

"Something you should know, Nick. Reed and I checked out the strip club. It appears that the girl is now working at the strip club. I also need to tell you and the chief something tomorrow. I also found out the Gulag will be reopening again."

"The Gulag? I thought that place shut down after I took down the Russkies' counterfeiting operation."

Rosie replied. "Well, it seems that the drug we're after will help business. The owner of the Body Fantastique seems to be dealing in some of that stuff. We might be closer than we think."

"Well, we'll talk more about in the morning," Nick said.

"Talk to you then," Rosie said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that's the end of this chapter. The events of this, along with the past few chapters took place within the same day. At least our heroes will be getting somewhere.
> 
> I must note that initially for the sequence with Rosie, I thought about doing something that was reminiscent of Heavy Rain when Madison went to the club, but I changed my mind. In my mind, the owner was like that guy Paco from Heavy Rain. He was supposed to be a coked-out sleaze that was also a bit of a pervert.
> 
> Plus, I wanted to have her play a big role in the story. Nick and Marcus are co-protagonists, but Rosie has more of a secondary character status, like being a deuteragonist.
> 
> Vivian will appear again soon and will have a reunion with Marcus. Just wait and see.
> 
> The two guys who spotted Marcus and Rosie are connected to one of the main villains. Bobby will appear eventually.
> 
> The voice that Nick heard was that of Ancient Wu. For those wondering, Ancient Wu was a major character in Streets of LA who gave Nick the answers he needed. Will he actually appear? He might, but I am not sure about putting in sequences involving fighting zombies, demons, or dragons. I don't think this story needs to go there.
> 
> Until next time, peace out.
> 
> "Nasty Girl" performed by Kasino feat. Nite & Day. Copyright 1998 Def Jam Recordings.
> 
> "I Wanna Rock (Doo Doo Brown)" performed by Luke. Copyright 1991 Luke Records.
> 
> "Beep" performed by The Pussycat Dolls feat. will.i.am . Copyright 2005 A&M Records.


	8. More than Meets the Eye

It was now the following day. After gathering more information the previous night, especially some new information that no one expected to gather, this case was only the beginning.

But when Marcus saw that familiar face stripping, he wondered if she was doing that for extra money or if she was doing that because she had no other choice. Besides, Nick was only told that she quit, but somehow, he suspected that maybe she probably was still under their employ, and that the Triads were only trying to get rid of him.

Whatever the case was, things were only going to escalate.

Marcus and Nick had gotten to the EOD headquarters, as did Rosie. They immediately regrouped from the previous day, as they went towards Chief Wanda Parks.

"Good morning, what did all of you find out?" Parks said.

The first person who answered the chief's question was Rosie.

"Last night, Reed and I went to check out the strip club out in Hollywood. I found out that the owner is dealing. So I winged my interview as someone who wants in on the action. While I was winging it, I mentioned the suspect's name that Nick and Marcus here busted yesterday. He seems to know the guy." She turned her attention towards the guys. "But that guy doesn't seem like he is the main dealer."

"No, he doesn't," Nick said. "But he has to know something."

Chief Parks then interrupted. "Too late for that, he got bailed yesterday. But something tells me that this guy wasn't the dealer or anything like that."

"Or maybe not the main dealer, not like someone who you would see on the corner just pushing narcotics like some lowly thug trying to make an honest buck," Marcus said. "This guy was packing and was ready for us when Kang and I went right for him."

Nick turned towards Marcus. "Hey, I could have gotten him, you know?"

Marcus added, "That guy looked like he was about to kill that poor girl. I had to do something. Anyway, this guy could be a dealer, but I saw some other guys. I wondered what their deal was."

Parks added some of her input. "Well, it didn't take long for someone to post bail for him, because when you guys brought him in yesterday, someone came and bailed him out hours later."

"He don't got to worry, because that guy won't be able to run after him, not after I shot him in the leg," Marcus said. "Even then, we still have no leads to the main supplier. Those guys just vanished and then he just got bailed out."

"Hold up, you guys," Rosie said. "I think I could try getting that sleazy strip club owner to get us closer. I think I should work with some others to see if we can try getting closer. For some reason, he trusts me, probably because he was attracted to me. I think I can handle him."

"Well, Rosie," Chief Parks said. "I want to hear more of your plan. Follow me to my office."

Chief Parks and Rosie walk away, while Nick and Marcus stay back.

"Hey, while you two go talk, maybe the new kid and I can go search for some stuff ourselves," Nick said.

Marcus looked at Nick. "Do you even have a plan?"

"Follow me and you shall see," Nick said. At that moment, he started walking away as Marcus looked on and then started following him. Then out of the blue, a cellphone started ringing. Marcus reached for his pocket as he saw on the little screen of his flip-phone, it said "Deena Dixon."

"I got to take this," Marcus said and then walked somewhere else.

Nick looked at the NY detective with some slight derision. I don't need you on this. I can handle this on my own.

Marcus stepped outside and answered. "Hello, Dixon. What's going on?"

"Marcus, how's it going down there?"

"Eh, you know, sunshine and palm trees, a lot different than The Big Apple. Nah, I'm kidding, there's as much scum out here as there is in New York. Hey, I want to know, have you and Whitting checked on anything?"

"It's only been a day since you've gone down there, but we're trying to find out who it was, Marcus," Dixon said. "Usually anybody who tries an attempt on someone's life, they're likely to get out of dodge ASAP."

"Yeah, well, I found something even more interesting. Remember when I was working with Whitting on finding out the mole in the OCU? It appears that the drug Pop has found its way out here."

"Wait, what? How is that even possible? I thought Whitting and the rest of the feds, as well as you and some of the narcotics division managed to take the drugs."

"Something or someone must have let it go loose," Marcus said. "I don't know what is going on, but after busting Lionel Jones, his entire empire went down. The Presidents Club, Zen Empire Records. I don't think anybody is running his old label at this point."

Dixon said, "You don't think he had anything to do with the contract on you, do you?"

"That guy was loaded, but I don't think he has a lot of power on the inside to make orders to some other criminals about taking down a cop. Even then, I am sure that the leaders of the other gangs that me and the feds took down will want me dead, too. But I wonder about the drugs. Who on earth would unleash a drug like that to the world? That shit will fuck you up in a minute. Wasn't it about $100 million worth of that drug that we took away? What's funny is that I am surprised that the guys out here aren't dealing any of the shit that the Latin Lords or the Magdalena Cartel were dealing, but that's not to say that they aren't."

"I don't know, but I think Whitting and I will go and have a nice chat with Lionel Jones about this. This has to be something big. We will also keep you posted about the people who want you dead. It's not safe out here for you, but you will have to come home eventually."

"I know, but please keep me posted, okay? Talk you soon, bye."

After Marcus got off the phone, he went back inside and approached Nick.

"Okay, detective, you said you got a plan? What do you got?"

Nick replied. "A few days ago, I busted some guys trying to rob a bank. But one of those guys may know a thing or two. I'll take you there, come on."

* * *

It took some time to get to where they needed to get to. They took a drive out to El Monte. Being that the Elite Operations Division has jurisdiction in the entire county of Los Angeles, Nick still had authority in various parts of the county. This was no exception.

The two detectives found a particular house on Ferris Road. Nick parked his car in front of that house.

"What are we doing here?" Marcus said.

"We just need to talk to someone," Nick said. "I have a hunch that he may know more than what meets the eye."

"I hope you're right. We're stuck with nothing right now, except Rosie's got something and I think I got a lead, but I feel that there is more to it."

Nick and Marcus approached the door to the house. It seemed like a nice enough house, at least for a few people to live in. But whose house was it? What would the person know?

Nick knocked on the door. "Ray, are you home? It's Detective Kang. I need to ask you something."

He rang the doorbell, but then Marcus noticed something a little irregular.

"Hey, knock on that door again."

Nick knocked on it and then a squeaking sound went off as the door started to crack open.

"That's odd. Who leaves the door unlocked like that?"

"And who doesn't close it all the way?" Marcus replied. "Something fishy here, I'll tell you that."

Nick then called for Ray's attention once again. The house looked messy. Some lights were still on. Some people may leave lights on if they were to take off to make it seem like someone was home.

Marcus closed the door behind him. No one was home. Nick looked around and noticed pictures of the same guys who took part in the failed heist. It appeared that they all lived together.

"Man, it seems pretty lonely for Ray to live like this," Nick said.

Marcus then looked over and saw a piece of paper on the coffee table and picked it up and looked at it.

"Hey, partner, I think I found something."

Nick walked towards Marcus who held the piece of paper. It appeared to be a note.

"Dear, Tina, I had to take off for a bit. I can't live like this right now. I'm going to clean myself up, but I need to also be away. If you read this, I'm already gone. I promise I will call…"

Nick looked up and thought to himself. _Tina?_

He then picked up what appeared to be a framed picture that was knocked face down on the coffee table. The picture looked like Ray and a woman who appeared to be familiar to him.

"Oh, I see now," Nick said.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Seems like something is up. I will tell you the rest later, but I stopped a bank heist a few days ago. Something is definitely up."

"What?"

Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll explain later."

The two detectives slowly approached the door. Nick peeped a bit through the peephole, while Marcus slowly pulled up some blinds to peek through the window right next to the door. Nick kept a bit of a distance from the peephole and already saw that it was dark.

"Oh shit!" Nick yelled and the moment he got out of the way, a blast went right through the peephole as small wood chips had flown right from that part of the door. Marcus dove right in front of a couch, while Nick stood right by the door with his back against the wall. Right at that moment, the door opened and a guy in black and sunglasses opened the door.

"What the…?" said the man as he opened it some more. He looked at the floor as he noticed that there was nobody there. He walked forward more and noticed that the room was getting darker and was met with something metal touching the left side of his head.

"Freeze, asshole," Nick said. He closed the door behind them and pointed his Desert Eagle to the man's head.

Marcus stood up and drew his .45 right to him.

"You're surrounded," Marcus said.

The man had no choice but to drop his weapon and raise his arms in the air. But in that moment, Marcus heard some light taps in the same house. He looked towards the right and saw another guy hide behind a wall. He signaled to Nick that he knock the other guy out while he goes to check it out.

Nick pistol-whipped the first hitman, while Marcus quickly moved forward and put his back against the wall. The man appeared to be in the kitchen. He heard a weapon cock, but it didn't sound like it could be a handgun. No, it sounded much different. Having heard that, Marcus went behind another wall, as the gunman popped out with a Mossberg 500. Nick looked up and quickly dove out of sight as a shell went right for him, leaving a few holes on the door.

Marcus quickly reacted and tackled the shotgun-wielding gunman and drove the man's head right to the floor, but was then met with an elbow to the gut. The hitman then got up and kicked Marcus in the face. He picked up a knife that he had.

The hitman whom Nick had knocked out had gotten up and yelled towards the guy in Russian. ["You handle that guy. This one is mine."]

The other one nodded. ["I'll take care of him."]

He then looked down and noticed that Marcus was nowhere to be found. But it didn't matter to him. He picked up his Mossberg and figured where he could have gone.

He looked through a hallway where there were a bunch of closed doors. The gunman opened one door and went inside. Nothing there. He then fired a shell into the other closed door. He opened the door. Nothing there, either. There was one final room to look through, which was the master bedroom.

However, a particular door was open, which was to one of the bathrooms of the house. A curtain opened, as Marcus stepped out of the shower/bathtub. The gunman continued to search the bedroom and then saw the bathroom, with a closed shower curtain. The man unloaded his shotgun, but realized that no one was there.

"Nice try," a voice said behind the gunman. It was Marcus with his pistol drawn. "But you got a lot to learn."

The gunman dropped the shotgun, but quickly drew his knife and swung the blade right towards Marcus's neck, but barely missed and tried to stake a stab at the cop's chest, but Marcus jumped back at the right time.

Marcus found a glass right on a dresser and clocked him over the head with it and smashed on impact from the attack. The man fell down and Marcus got out his handcuffs to try to cuff him, but he wasn't out. This wasn't like in the movies where getting knocked out means you're out. He quickly regained consciousness and grabbed Marcus by his feet to trip him.

The gunman got to his feet and picked up the shotgun once again and aimed the barrel right towards the downed detective.

Marcus lied there and right beside him was his .45.

"Say good night, pig," the gunman said.

Marcus quickly fired a round into the man's gut. "Good night."

The gunman fell right to his knee as blood dripped from his stomach and blood started to run from his mouth. Marcus took a deep breath after all of that. It didn't seem like he would make it from that. He then got out his phone to request backup. He started to walk away.

However, the man wasn't dead yet. He picked up a sidearm he had and was ready to open fire to the detective. Marcus turned around and fired three rounds into the man's chest and he fell down from the gunshots. The gunman did not get up or move from that.

Meanwhile, Nick and the other gunman from before got into a bit of scuffle. Gunfire went across the living room and into the kitchen. It wasn't long until clicking sounds went off in their guns.

The hitman said in a Russian accent. "You know, shooting you would be too easy. Let's fight like men."

"Oh, you want to do it like that, huh?" Nick said. "Bring it on."

The hitman threw a punch to Nick, who quickly dodged the attack. Nick delivered a high kick but was blocked and thrown to the ground. Nick rose up and tried to punch the man again, but was blocked and thrown to the ground. It was at that moment, the hitman picked up a knife and was ready to drive the blade right into the detective's chest, but Nick quickly rolled and rose up to deliver a jumping spin kick. It was hard enough to send the gunman walking backwards and breaking the front door in the process, as it had the shot from the shotgun from before.

Nick was ready to detain him right then and there. But the hitman was not ready for that, as he got up and got the knife once again and tried to swing it to slash Nick once again. He got close enough to grab him and was ready to shank him.

But Nick had something up his sleeve, as the hitman felt a slight shock somewhere down there, as Nick had a taser in his hand. He started howling out an agonizing scream.

"Well," Nick said. "Looks like you won't be having kids anytime soon."

"Fuck you!" the Russian hitman said.

"Yeah, well, you won't be fucking anybody soon."

It wasn't long until a couple of squad cars came up. A black car was seen across the street. In there were two African-American men. The two detectives picked up the Russian gangster and had a few uniformed cops take him in.

"Hey, remember last night?" one of the two guys in the car said. "That IS that guy."

"The fuck is he doing out here?" said the other guy.

"I don't know, but I know he shot Mike in the leg. We gotta tell our boss this. He's gonna have a fit if he knows that the cop is here."

"We'll tell him, but we gotta handle our business first. I think the Russian boss promised us some new guns and some shit."

One of the gangsters got out a digital camera and shot pictures of the two detectives. They then started up the car and took off.

After the cops took the surviving hitman away, Nick informed one of the uniformed cops to follow him to Downtown LA, as he got a lead on something.

Nick and Marcus took off to Downtown from El Monte to the one place they needed to go. It was bank on S Hope St. The same bank that Nick had prevented the failed bank heist from before.

"So tell me, what was the deal with that note?" Marcus said.

"I got a hunch that says this bank robbery that I stopped wasn't some random shit," Nick said. "That girl mentioned in the letter? I think she was in on it."

Marcus said nothing after that, but this wasn't much of a shock.

Nick parked the car and without any words, the two detectives got out of the car as Nick walked quickly to get inside. He saw some security guards and quickly flashed his badge towards, as did Marcus. He went right for a blonde woman teller, who then looked up.

"Oh, Nick, Detective Kang, you're back so soon." It was none other than Tina.

"Cut the bullshit, Tina. You're coming with us." Nick said with a scowl on his face. Marcus didn't say a word, but Nick had filled him in on what was said. He didn't know the girl, but he had every right to have that look on his face.

"What's going on here?" a middle-aged man came up and said. He appeared to be the branch manager.

Marcus said, "This is police business. We're just taking her in for questioning."

Nick gave his Miranda rights and cuffed Tina as they put her in the back of a police car.

Nick and Marcus went back into Nick's yellow sports car. It was obvious that Tina had a lot of explaining to do.

* * *

**NEW YORK CITY**

Dixon and Whitting, along with Victor Navarro, the lieutenant of the Organized Crime Unit of the PDNY, all took an impromptu trip to Rikers Island. It appeared that Lionel Jones was locked up in there, along with some other people whom the FBI had taken in after that major case from the previous year.

The two lieutenants, along with the veteran FBI agent, all got off the boat and headed towards the entrance.

"What makes you so sure that he might have something to do with that thug's attempted murder?" Victor said.

"Victor, shut up," Dixon said. "I know you don't trust Marcus, but he cleared your name after all the bullshit that happened with Terry. Besides, he singlehandedly got everyone of the crime syndicates locked up."

Whitting added. "Lionel Jones also distributed the drug called 'Pop' and somehow it found itself in LA. Reed is helping the EOD down there try to crack the case. We're just trying to pay 'President Benjamin' a visit."

"Benjamin? Benjamin Franklin? He was never president," Navarro said.

"That's the point," Whitting said. "But he was the leader of the Presidents Club and they pushed Pop out here. He must know something."

It wasn't long until the trio got to the visiting area. This wasn't a normal visit. They just needed to ask a few questions. But time was of the essence. The trio went up to the window. It wasn't long until a tall, muscular, and bald African-American man in an orange jumpsuit approached the window as he saw a blonde female police lieutenant, an older man with sunglasses, and an older Puerto Rican police lieutenant at the window. The man grabbed the phone that was to the side.

Dixon grabbed the phone and said, "Lionel Jones? We want to ask you some questions."

Lionel responded. "What do you want to know?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to leave this on cliffhanger of some sort. The discussion with Lionel Jones will continue in the next chapter, as will the interrogation of Tina Ferguson, the bank teller from Nick's introductory chapter. Didn't see that one coming, huh?
> 
> I will put in the bit of Marcus infiltrating the race circuit in the next one or the one after, but I have some ideas for that part.
> 
> Regarding the infiltration, I used some stuff as inspiration. I remembered an old "Walker, Texas Ranger" episode that had a fight scene that started in a house and went into the outside. I might even have to re-watch some episodes of the "Lethal Weapon" TV show to get a glimpse of some other scenes. It had been a while, at least when Riggs was still on the show.
> 
> As noted in another chapter, I had to research real locations in LA. Being that the two games used real streets and locations (But not the exact locations as seen in the games), I had to search Google Maps for real streets, like in El Monte, Toluca Lake, Glendale, etc.
> 
> I will do the next one soon.


	9. Laying it all on the Table

**RIKERS ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY.**

Dixon did the honors to discuss with Jones, also known as "Benjamin" in the Presidents Club, the Presidents' boss at that. He had gone to jail after Marcus had busted him and some of the other "presidents," well, any of the surviving lieutenants of the gang. They manufactured and distributed the drug known as Pop.

But the question was on the minds of everyone involved in the case.

"Mr. Jones," Dixon said. "I am Deena Dixon of the PDNY Street Crime Unit. This here is Agent Gabriel Whitting of the FBI and also this is Victor Navarro, lieutenant of the Organized Crime Unit. My lead detective is in Los Angeles as we speak taking on a case with one of L.A.'s finest involving this drug. What we want to know is if you have anything to do with the drug being down there."

Lionel responded. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Whitting took the phone from Dixon. "Mr. Jones, with all due respect, you and the rest of the Presidents Club had manufactured the drug out here. From what I understand, you worked with the Yakuza, but then you got into some problems with them. We busted you because you were working with a detective in the OCU. But with this drug having made it out west, we wondered if you have connections on the outside who are distributing it."

"Like I said before," Lionel said. "I don't know what you're talking about. Yes, I admit that I was involved in making and dealing that drug. That little nigga that got lucky that one night, the moment he busted me, my business went down, as did the rest of the club. All of you guys took every piece of Pop that was found at Zen Empire Records. I had to make sure my business was pro-tected, but that little nigga got lucky, like I said before."

The way he said "protected" had enunciated the prefix "pro."

Dixon then signaled to Whitting to hand her the phone. "Okay, we get that, but do you have any connections on the outside? Like maybe someone who you were probably going to do business with before you got arrested?"

"You got to understand one thing, lady." Lionel said in such a calm, yet sinister tone. "I didn't touch my own shit. Yes, I was involved and it was my business, but President Grant was the one who was handling all the distribution and business deals. But now that you mention it, he had said something about maybe doing business with some gang out in Harlem or The Bronx. They call themselves the Original Gangster Family. If I recall, their original leader was Omar Green, but after he was killed, his son, Bobby Green took over as leader. Grant and Jackson, along with Hamilton, they were talking about making a deal and an alliance with that gang. But it never came through."

Whitting, along with the two police captains were able to see that Lionel had no influence on the outside. Only so few have that kind of power, but he wasn't one of those people.

It was now time for Victor to get into this discussion as he took the phone. "I must know. What do you know about Bobby Green? I remember some people in my unit have had a hard time in dealing with his organization. From what I hear, he is a tough guy to catch, and a psycho as well. I almost lost a good detective once to one of those guys."

"I don't know much, just like I don't know much about the distribution of Pop. But I will tell you that maybe his crew might know a thing or two. After all, they wanted to ally with us, so maybe someone took what was left before all of you pigs took the majority. They might even have a guy who knows how to manufacture the drug."

Dixon, Victor, and Whitting all looked at each other with so much confusion on their faces. It appeared that Lionel had a valid point. While it was clear from this discussion that he had no involvement in the distribution of the drug, it appeared that maybe a few of his lieutenants might know something.

"You might want to talk to Grant. He is the only one who might know. Lincoln won't tell you shit, and Hamilton and Jackson are dead."

"We'll take your word for it, Mr. Jones," Whitting said. "Thanks for your time."

The trio got up and walked down the hallways and headed to the outside of the penitentiary.

Dixon said, "I don't get it. How on earth does someone take million dollars worth of drugs like that? Whitting, didn't you have some of your men take the bulk of what was left?"

"As far as we know, yeah," Whitting said. "But we kept the remains safe somewhere as evidence."

"Well, someone had to have taken them," Dixon said.

Victor added, "If I recall, didn't Reed also take some of their drugs as evidence?"

"Yes, he did," Dixon said, but then something else hit her. "There's something that's giving me a weird hunch."

"What's that?" Victor said.

"If I recall, those guys who tried to kill Marcus, someone quickly posted bail for them. But I am not sure who they were affiliated with, but I'm guessing that they might be connected to the OGF. If I remember correctly, Marcus's father runs the King's Posse and they were bitter rivals. I wonder if they also have to do with the attempt on Marcus's life."

Victor added. "Look, Deena, I know I've had some differences with Reed, but I can't stand to see another cop get killed or almost get killed. I might have to help with this case. That gang is pretty ruthless, so I will help."

Whitting added. "I will help look into this, too. In the meantime, Marcus will be fine."

"I hope so," Dixon said, as they all entered the helicopter to head back to the precinct.

* * *

**ELITE OPERATIONS DIVISON HEADQUARTERS, LOS ANGELES.**

Meanwhile, in LA, Nick and Marcus had brought in two suspects. One was the hitman who tried to kill the two cops. But because it was Ray's house, one could suspect that the two hitmen were on the hunt for Ray. The question was why. He was merely an addict, or was he?

The other suspect brought in was Tina Ferguson, a bank teller who may or may not have had a part in a robbery attempt from a few days prior.

With the two suspects having been apprehended, it was now time to ask some questions. Chief Parks had led the way for Nick, Marcus, and Rosie, who walked with them as well.

Parks looked inside the interrogation room with Tina inside, who sat there and looked down at the table with her right hand holding her head. "Nick, what's with that woman in there?"

Nick looked through the window. "Remember that robbery I foiled the other day? Well, I think she knows something. Reed and I went to scope out that guy Ray's house out in El Monte earlier. It turns out that she is Ray's girlfriend or something like that. She doesn't seem that loyal."

"What do you mean?" Chief said.

"Never mind that, but something also tells me that her boyfriend isn't just an addict."

Marcus added. "That other guy we busted, he and some other guy came gunning for that guy we were looking for. We just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Nick responded. "Or maybe the right place at the right time, depending on how you look at it. It looks like something is not what it seems from Ray." Nick paused. "Anyway, she has to know something. I'm going to talk to her."

"Nick," Chief said. "Be careful with her."

"Please, I am not that rough with the ladies, depending on how you look at it."

Marcus let out a small chuckle but then stopped himself as he noticed the two lady cops looking in his direction.

The moment Nick walked in through the door, Tina looked up and jumped. Nick looked right at her with a scowl, while Tina looked back at him with a look of "oh shit."

"Well, Tina, how are you doing today?" Nick said as he got closer to her and then sat down. "You know, you just came to mind earlier, which was why I paid you a visit. Except I wouldn't be so pleased if I knew that you were lying to my face a few days ago."

"What do you mean?" Tina said.

Nick had taken the photo from before, as well as the letter and laid them out on the table. He aggressively pushed them towards her.

"You see, I am starting to wonder if you knew anything about that robbery going down at your bank that day, especially when Ray had a part in it."

The moment she heard that name, her eyes bulged.

"That's right, not only did you lie to me about not having a boyfriend, despite telling me you did before, but I think you were in on that whole heist attempt."

"Wait, Ray was one of those guys?" Tina said with so much shock in her voice.

"Don't fucking play dumb with me, I read your boyfriend's letter to you. It seems like he is trying to get away from shit. It's a good thing I was at your house before a couple of assholes tried to kill him, and/or you if you were there."

Tina took a deep breath and looked away before shifting her eyes right at Nick. "Okay, let me break it down for you. I'm going to tell you all I know. Yes, Ray is, or was, my boyfriend. It's very complicated with us right now. Listen, he has been going through a lot. He has a lot of issues, whether it's drug problems or owing really bad people money through gambling debts or even worse, drug-dealing."

"Ohhhhh, now we're getting somewhere," Nick said in a sly yet sarcastic tone.

Tina continued to speak. "He and a couple of friends of his were talking about knocking off a bank because he owed so much money to some gangsters. He has been really distant and his problems have been getting worse. He even stole some of the drugs he was told to deal and even used them. I tried to help him a few times get over his addiction, but some of the time he'll relapse. Don't get me started on his gambling debts. He even put some of the rent money down, but then the debt got even higher. I couldn't deal with it anymore, so I was considering breaking up with him."

"Okay, sounds plausible," Nick said. "But somehow I think that you had a part in the robbery."

"I swear to you, I had no idea that they were going to go for the bank that I work at," Tina said. "The way one of those guys put the gun right to my head, I was so scared right then. I didn't know that it was them in under those masks."

"Why should I believe you?"

"I know it's hard for you to believe me after finding out about my relationship with Ray, but if you look at some of the camera footage, you might…find that I was a little wet in some areas that day."

"Your boyfriend was easy to take down," Nick said. "Something told me that he was going through a relapse. He even had some of the drugs on him that very day. However, the other two guys were not as easy."

Nick then got out the mug-shots of the other two men involved in the robbery. One was named Neil Vincent; the other was named Joe Doyle. Tina took a closer look at them and then gasped and then quickly put her hands right to her mouth.

"You know these guys, don't you?" Nick said.

Tina looked up and Nick saw that her eye started to get slightly watery.

"Yes, I know them." She then wiped her eye a bit. "Those two guys are bad news. They are a couple of friends from Ray's past and I often tried to get him to stop talking to him. Like I told you before, I tried to help him get over some of these issues, but somehow the people from his past come back and find him. I always knew that they hated me, but I didn't think that they were willing to put a gun to my head like they did."

"Didn't seem like Ray was the ring-leader," Nick said. "Neil was definitely the last guy I took down, so he was probably the main guy in charge. Shit, it even felt like Ray blitzed up to his wits that day to even try to even be competent triggerman. I don't think he even knew what was going on. It even seemed that way when I talked to him."

"You talked to him?" Tina said.

"Doesn't he tell you anything?" Nick said.

"He _has_ been really distant lately. Like I said, we've been on the outs of our relationship, so he hasn't said much about what he has been going through. I loved him. Actually, I still love him, but it just hasn't been working out for us lately."

"Well, do those bad people know anything about you?" Nick said.

"As far as I know, he tried to leave me out of everything," Tina said. "The last thing he wanted to do was hurt me."

"You know, as much of a piece of shit he sounds, he is very loyal," Nick said.

Tina looked up at Nick and said, "Please don't call him that. He may be screw-up, he may be troubled, but he is not a bad person."

Nick had every right to have a lot of disbelief in everything she said, but the fact that her boyfriend had a lot of problems and had to take off, it sounded like he didn't want Tina to get mixed up in his problems.

"Okay, I'll take your word…for now, anyway," Nick said. "I'm not saying I believe you, but I'm not saying I don't believe you either. What you should do is call him. I need to have a word with him, especially after everything you just told me."

Tina nodded her head and then took out her phone, only for her phone to start ringing and an unfamiliar number appeared on the screen. She then picked up.

"Hello?" she said.

A male voice said. "Tina, are you on your lunch break?"

"Not exactly," Tina said. "Ray, there's someone here who wants to talk to you."

Nick then gave her the signal to hand it over.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another interrogation room, Chief Parks and Rosie tried to talk to the Russian hitman. It turned out his name was Nikolai Chugunkin. He looked bored and was ready to try to break out at any given moment, but he was handcuffed to the table. After the fight he put up with Nick, he had to be restrained.

The Chief talked. "You know, we caught who we believe was an accomplice of yours, but he wasn't talking."

"I know you don't like to rat on your own," Rosie said. "But the fact that you and your partner went to a person's house to kill him, you will be charged on the grounds on breaking and entering, home invasion, attempted murder. It doesn't matter if you get bailed out in this, it's all on you now. Shit, your partner almost killed a fellow officer as well as a civilian."

At that point, Marcus walked in. He signaled to the two ladies. He wanted to handle this on his own. At that point, Rosie and Chief Parks stood and watched through the window.

"Do you think that he might have an idea on what's going on?" Rosie said.

Chief said, "I don't know, but with Reed having busted some crime syndicates, he has to have a way to get information."

"I just wonder if he can crack that guy," Rosie said. "Nick has his ways, but I don't know about this guy."

Marcus stood over the hitman. "Well well, I know for a fact that you don't want to sell out your boys. I know a thing or two about loyalty, but at the same time, this might not be a case of loyalty, but rather that you know that someone will want to take you out if you fuck up anything in the process."

"Who the fuck are you, pig?" Nikolai said.

"I'm the guy who smoked your boy," Marcus said.

"You got lucky," Nikolai said.

"Oh, really? I got lucky?" Marcus said. "Well let me tell you a thing or two about luck. You don't singlehandedly take down a drug ring or counterfeiting ring without having a lot of bullets flying at you and trying to make sure that you take the majority of the people alive. That's what I've done. Your boy, however, wasn't so lucky. He was too cocky that he was sure that he would smoke a cop who was on duty."

"What do you want from me, cop?" Nikolai said. "From what I see, you're not even from here."

"Don't let the badge fool you," Marcus said. "I am here to take solve a case involving a drug that I was sure that I had gotten off the streets of New York, but somehow it ended up out here. And from what I saw, you and your dead boy, as well as that fool who won't be able to walk right anymore, you must have some reason to follow us or maybe you know someone who fucked you over, which was why you came to a person's house to kill him."

Marcus then grabbed Nikolai by the jaw. "So tell me, who were you going to kill? Who the fuck sent you to do the job?"

"None of your fucking business."

"I knew you would say that." Marcus then grabbed the suspect by the head and then drove his head right to the table. "Now will you tell me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't make the bad guy, or else this could get ugly."

"Fuck you."

"Oh, _now_ you say that. Well, fuck you, too." Marcus then drove the man's face into the table once again, so hard that he got a minor bruise on his face. Once he took a look at the suspect's face, blood started to run from his nose.

"Oh come on, I didn't hit you that hard," Marcus said.

From the outside, Nick joined the two ladies, whom had looked on with looks of shock, yet were a bit calm in the matter.

"Hey, what's going on in there?" Nick said.

"He's trying to get information," Rosie said. "And I thought you were pretty rough sometimes."

"I still have my moments," Nick said. "But that all depends on who I'm dealing with."

Inside, Marcus then banged his hands on the table. "Tell me! Who were you trying to kill? And who are you working for?"

The door then opened. "Reed, let me handle this." Marcus looked up and saw Nick standing there.

"Kang, he's all yours."

Nick then walked in. Marcus got out and stood there with Rosie and Chief Parks. Through the window, Nick got Nikolai to his feet and then pushed him against the wall.

Inside, Nick said, "What do you want from Ray Miller?"

Nikolai answered. "Our boss wants him dead. He found out that the little shit owes a lot of money, as he stole some of the drugs to deal on his own, as well as for his own use. My boss does not tolerate failure in any way. From what I know, I only heard that Ray had some problems of his own and was only selling the drugs for his own benefit. He gave little for my boss's cut. Some of the guys had to be with him when he was dealing."

"What was he doing out in Santa Monica yesterday?" Nick said.

"Only thing I will say is that there may have been dealers out there that we needed to get a cut from," Nikolai said. "That's all I will tell you."

"Not so fast, Nikolai. When does the Gulag club open? I think your boss and I will have a nice chat."

"The opening is this Friday," Nikolai said. "But don't say that I didn't warn you."

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" Nick said. "This had better check out."

Nick got out of the interrogation room and approached Marcus, Rosie, and Chief Parks.

"Okay, I was told everything by the girl, and this guy managed to tell me some stuff," Nick said. "It seems that Ray Miller, the guy I arrested recently, is one of the problems in this case. I had the girl lend me her phone so that I can have a nice chat with him. I will talk to him again soon. But in the meantime, I think I will need to check out the Gulag club this Friday to find out who is running this operation."

Marcus said, "Well, I can't help you with this. I have to go handle the race with Gypsy. I feel that Vivian's boyfriend is also involved in the dealing. For all we know, if he fucks anything up, he might be next."

Rosie said, "Well maybe I might have to do my meeting so that I can talk to that guy Pete. I think I can have him meet me at the Gulag so we can talk business. He might be in deep with whoever the supplier is."

"Well, we'll have to see what will happen," Chief Parks said. "It doesn't seem like these people are the type to be messed with. Anyway, I need to go look at some stuff right now."

"Hold on, Chief," Nick said. "Something tells me that the two accomplices in that robbery might know more than we think. I think they're only in county right now."

"Well, you two do what you think is right," Chief Parks said. "I need to go do some paperwork right now."

At that point, all of the cops split up to go do their own thing.

* * *

**GULAG CLUB, WEST HOLLYWOOD.**

Inside the club, which looked slightly different from how it did before, some Russian gangsters were lined up, as well as some African-American gangsters. The Russians led the black gangsters the way into an office. The black gang members all paved the way for a man in a black and white pinstripe suit and sunglasses and had a briefcase in his hand. He also had a muscular man by his side.

In front of him, a man sat behind a desk but had the chair facing the opposite direction.

"Bobby Green, I've been expecting you," a man said in a Russian accent and then turned around, who was revealed to be younger, like maybe 25 years old.

"You're the leader?" Bobby said. "And it's Robert to you."

"Okay, Robert," the man said. "My name is Vladimir, but you can call me Vlad. And yes, I know I may be young, but don't let my age fool you. I've seen a lot of stuff in my day. I think I know what I'm doing."

"I'm older and I think I've seen even more," Bobby said. "But I am not here to argue. I'm here to discuss business. With all of the Pop you've been selling, I'm here to discuss our end of the bargain. I've been having some of my boys in New York sell some of it as well as had a lot of the shipments come from out there. But you also promised me your end. Where are the weapons that you promised us?"

"All in good time, Mr. Green," Vlad said. "They've all been paid for, and I know that we need to give your boss, my boss, in fact, OUR boss his end of the bargain."

"You think I don't know that?" Bobby said. "Besides, I might have to be for a little longer, anyway. Let's just say that I am trying to lay low from any issues in my neck of the woods."

"Hey, you supply us with the drugs, we'll supply you with the arms," Vlad said. "Besides, we're getting in the money in the process for Pop, and if I recall, didn't you have some other drugs that you got your hands on?"

"Only some," Bobby said. "But we'll have to look into what we can do with it."

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

The two gang leaders looked up towards the door. Vlad asked another man in the room in Russian to open the door.

The doorman said, "What do you want? Bosses are busy now."

"I just need to talk to my boss for a minute. It won't take long."

Bobby turned around. "Tre, what's going on?"

"I have to tell you something," Tre said. "In fact, I need to show you."

Tre got out the digital camera and showed the picture that his boss needed to see. Bobby took a closer look and the moment he saw it, his eyes bulged.

"What the fuck is he doing out here?" Bobby said. "What's going on here? I told my boys to try to smoke that pig, but now he out here."

"Shit, I don't know," Tre said. "But he and that cop busted one of those Russian guys who were sent to kill that one dude. Maybe they're working together."

"Well, we we're gonna have to take care of that problem very soon," Bobby said. "Shit, those two Russian dudes could have taken care of him and we wouldn't be in this shit now."

"I don't know shit about any of this, okay?" Tre said. "I just needed you to know that he's here."

Vlad then got up and took a peek at the picture on the camera. The moment he saw the picture, he had a look on his face that made him think that one of the men seemed familiar.

"Excuse me, let me see that picture," Vlad said.

"You don't know what we're talking about here, this is a problem of our own," Bobby said.

"No, I'm not talking about that cop," Vlad said. "I'm talking about the Asian cop. I need to see who he is. Give it to me, now."

Bobby reluctantly handed Vlad the camera so that he could see. He looked at the picture and suddenly, one of the cops seemed familiar to him. Not so much that he had met him before, but had heard about him and likely had seen pictures.

"It's him," Vlad said. "I know who that cop is. And he will pay for what he's done."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, what a chapter I worked on. The next one will have the race sequence and Marcus and Vivian's reunion. I might even have another returning character appear, but I won't say who.
> 
> Also, like you've seen here, I had Victor appear. I was initially unsure about having him appear, but even though he was a jerkass cop in New York City, he wasn't a bad guy at all. Also, he will help on the case with Dixon and Whitting.
> 
> It's funny how deep I am digging into the lore, even though there were only two games. Or three if you count Sleeping Dogs, but if I were to do one with Wei, that would be set later.
> 
> I finally revealed the other antagonist. He might as well be the co-main antagonist. As for the part at the end, I will leave you to find what his issue with Nick is.


	10. Race Night (Marcus)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marcus goes to infiltrate the street-racing circuit to try to get close to the one key to cracking the case.

A couple of days had passed and the night was young. It was the night when Marcus was set to check out the race circuit to gain some leads on this flow of Pop coming into LA.

Marcus was going undercover as a new racer in the circuit. He had spoken to Gypsy, the stripper at The Body Fantastique a couple of nights prior. Though she was interested in maybe extending that private dance into a nightcap, Marcus wasn't, because he was more interested in the case. Not that he would mind, but his mind was on something else at the moment.

He was flying solo on this one, even though it would be advised to have support on this. While the New York detective may be out of his jurisdiction, he happened to know someone who would probably be at the race. He saw the same familiar face a couple of nights ago. So what were the chances that she would even be there?

Even then, Nick and Rosie were partnering up to do their own bit on the case. Rosie was going to pose as a businesswoman to try to buy some drugs. Nick was planning on infiltrating the club, or at least somewhere in the club where an important deal would be going down.

Nick had loaned the yellow car to Marcus as it was the fastest one of the bunch. Nick decided to use his red sports car to head out to West Hollywood where the Gulag was. As long as Marcus doesn't set off the sirens, he'll be good. He didn't do that when racing out in New York, and he wasn't going to start here, either.

He had picked up his cellphone and searched for Gypsy in his contacts.

"Hello?" a woman's voice said.

"Hello, Gypsy, this is Jimmy Mac, we met at the strip club the other night," Marcus said.

"Oh yes, I remember you," she said. "How's it going handsome?"

"Shit's a'ight," Marcus said. "Where's the race going on at?"

"I'll tell you where to meet me at," Gypsy said. "Okay, here it goes…"

* * *

**20 Minutes Later.**

Marcus took the yellow sports car to head out to where the race meet was taking place. He used the GPS on the car to get the location. The car was pretty fast and there could be a chance that he'll win if he takes part in a race tonight. The question was who will he race?

With his knowledge of Vivian Shen's boyfriend being involved in street racing, as well as possibly pushing drugs, Marcus only had that guy in mind. The odd thing about all of this was that he did not expect for her to be in Los Angeles, or at least connected to the case that he and Nick Kang were pursuing. Not to mention that he found that she was dancing nearly naked on stage at a strip club in Hollywood.

It wasn't long until he arrived at the site of the races. There were a lot of cars parked, with many people standing around socializing and/or talking business regarding cars. Many of the cars that were parked were souped up imports, as well as American muscle cars. Just like the racing scene he infiltrated out in Manhattan.

He got out and walked and looked around. Being that he was from out of town, no one would suspect that he was a cop. Hell, the person who ran the races in New York didn't take him for a cop. For that, she was dumbfounded and upset the moment Marcus not only refused to run the races with her, but also arrested her.

"Hey there, handsome!" a female voice said.

Marcus looked up and saw Gypsy walking up to him. She was wearing a revealing top that was button-down but had the top buttons undone to show her cleavage and also bared her midriff. She was also wearing tight pants but wore some actual shoes, as it would be hard to hold onto the gas in any other type of footwear.

"Jimmy, there you are!" she said. "Come on, I want to show you around."

Marcus continued to look around.

"So what do you think?" Gypsy said.

"A little different from what I'm used to," he said. "But all the same, no less."

He then looked around and saw a young Asian girl with a young Asian guy with her. The girl definitely looked familiar to him, as Vivian stood there with the guy. Vivian was dressed in a revealing schoolgirl outfit, with a plaid miniskirt and a white button-down and a few buttons unbuttoned and the bottom tied in a knot, also exposing her stomach. The guy with her was wearing a black muscle shirt and blue jeans. That guy had to be her boyfriend. It just had to be.

As they walked, Marcus stopped. "Okay, I want to know something. Who's that guy over there?"

Gypsy turned around and turned towards the guy standing next to Vivian. "Oh, that's Han. He's a good racer. He's pretty fast."

"Is he now? I think I want to challenge him to a race."

"Really now? He's pretty fast. Come on, I'll go introduce you to him."

The thoughts in Marcus's head were rolling in his head. While he may be getting close to that familiar face, the other thought was that maybe Gypsy may have hooked Vivian up with a job at the strip club. Irrelevant in this case, but it's still possible. After all, they were both in the racing scene.

Gypsy led Marcus to come close to the couple. "Hey, Han."

"Gypsy, you're here," Han said, while Vivian looked up and a look of surprise grew on her face the moment she saw Marcus. "Who is this guy?"

"This here is Jimmy Mac," Gypsy said. "He's new and he wants in on the racing action here."

_Jimmy Mac?_ Vivian thought to herself. She knew she heard that name before.

"He also said that he's pretty fast and wants to challenge you to a race," Gypsy said.

"Ain't no one fast like me," Han said. "This guy thinks he can beat me?"

"Yeah, I've had my share of victories in other parts," Marcus said.

"Oh really? Well, have you raced out here in LA? It ain't like those 'other parts' you say, homeboy."

The way Vivian looked at Marcus then started to draw attention to both Gypsy and Han.

"Wait, do you two know each other?" Gypsy said.

"No, I don't know him," Vivian said. "He looks like someone I knew a while back, though."

Vivian had to cover it up, but was it good enough? After that, Han and Vivian walked towards the person who calls the shots for the racing circuit.

Meanwhile, Marcus looked on as Vivian turned her attention back towards for one last quick glance. He even noticed the car that Han had. It was uncertain whether he won that car through a pink slip, or bought it through money from the races or even the drugs he possibly pushed.

He turned towards Gypsy. "So how do the races work out here? Are there two people at a time or four people at a time?"

Gypsy responded, "It all depends. Are you racing for a personal wager? Or do you want to take part in a high-stakes race? I can see you want to race that guy. And do you know that girl?"

"No, she just looks like someone I knew before, almost like she could be a twin sister."

"Well, everyone has a doppelganger."

Han and Vivian walked back towards the two.

"Okay, Joe over there said that you and I can race. Just me and you. I'm willing to put 12 large down for this. What do you got?"

Marcus looked at Han and then said, "You can have my whip." He pointed right to the yellow car that he brought to the race. Knowing that this would be a risky move, the confidence flowed through his system because he knows how fast that car is. Was this an unfair advantage? No one knew, but even the car Han had was fast in and of itself.

"Shit, I think I could have me some of that," Han said. "You're on, dude."

"Okay, what's the distance?" Marcus said.

"We race a couple of miles," Han said. "We finish right where we start."

"You're on, man." Marcus figured he had this in the bag, but what he really wanted was to get close to his supposed action. He had to find a way.

Marcus and Han drove their cars to the starting line. Gypsy came up to Marcus's window and said, "Hey, Jimmy, if you win, you can have some of this." Gypsy then gave him a sexy pose.

Marcus shrugged. "I'll think about it."

Meanwhile, Han started to rev up his car. Vivian went to his window and said, "You don't have to do this, baby."

"Listen, there's no way I can lose to this asshole. Just go do your thing and then after that, go home. I got some shit to do afterwards."

"Han, listen, you need to get out of the drug stuff. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I won't, Vivian. Besides, I know what I'm doing. Just go on home. I'll go do my stuff and then I will be home. I promise."

Vivian nodded her head. "Okay."

Marcus revved up his car, while Han did the same thing. Vivian walked up to the center of the road and raised her arms up in the air and then did the "ready, set, go" process. The moment she lowered her arms, both cars were off.

Marcus had the lead from the get-go as he was ahead of Han. He held onto the gas and the speed raised as time went on. Han tried his best to catch up to Marcus, but the farthest he could go was to the middle. No matter how fast Han tried to go, Marcus went faster.

The streets were closed off as another race was set later that night. So this racing circuit was more organized than others. When Marcus raced in New York, the streets were never closed off. It often varied, whether the streets were closed off or completely open with people driving and doing their own thing.

Han saw that Marcus was faster as they were halfway to the finish line. But Han had something up his sleeve, as nitrous oxide was steaming out and then his car started to go faster.

Marcus saw the car get ahead of him by only a bit, so he floored the gas and caught up to him. In that moment, he turned and hit the car from one end, which caused Han's car to turn a bit and then passed him up and then the moment he got to the finish line, he stomped on the brakes.

Han then drove up not long after. He looked at everyone crowding around Marcus and then looked directly at him with a look of suspicion. Like something was not right about him. He even wondered if his girlfriend knew the guy, as the look she gave him earlier gave off some signals.

He got out of the car and then went towards Marcus. "You fucking cheated, asshole!"

"Hey, who said that there were rules in street racing?" Marcus said. "Also, where's the green?"

Han shrugged. "This isn't over. I'll get you your money soon, but next time, you won't be so lucky."

From a distance Vivian looked on as those two were arguing, but Marcus then noticed a yellow cab coming up towards her. He suspected that she was waiting for a cab or a bus. He told everyone he needed to go and quickly got back in the car and then started it up as he saw the cab pull up right next to her. He was about to tail that cab to follow her home.

The cab then took off as Marcus drove off. Gypsy and some of the other spectators looked on with confusion. Why did Marcus leave so soon? No one knew the reason why except Marcus himself.

It took a bit, but the cab finally pulled up to a house somewhere close to Koreatown, on S. Wilton Place to be exact. Vivian paid and tipped the driver and then walked towards the door to get in.

It was not long until Marcus pulled up in the car. It had to be the place as he saw the same cab drive away.

Vivian went inside the apartment and changed out of her schoolgirl outfit and changed into sweatpants and a small T-shirt. She seemed like she was ready for bed, but then she went to sit on the couch for a bit. But then suddenly...

RING! RING! RING!

Her Motorola Razr phone started ringing. The number that appeared on the screen had a 212 area code, which was definitely from New York. Who from New York could be calling her?

"Hello?"

"Hello, Vivian, it's been a long time, huh? Though not too long, right?"

"Who is this?"

"Look outside and find out for yourself."

She held the phone to her ear and walked up to the window and looked through the blinds, as a very familiar face was seen standing there next to a yellow car. Marcus then waved at her.

"Marcus Reed? Detective Marcus Reed?" Vivian said. "How did you get this number?"

"You gave it to me when you wrote that letter to me, remember?"

"You followed me home?"

"I had no choice. Why don't you let me in so that you and I can have a nice conversation? It's time you and I had a nice chat about what's going on."

Vivian was at a loss for words, but she had no choice in this. She felt that she needed to have a word with him, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The discussion between Marcus and Vivian will continue soon. I will have it happen so that those two will talk at the beginning of the next chapter. Initially, I was going to have it split into two perspectives, with Nick, Rosie, and another character, likely an OC, go and check on the Gulag. Rosie and the OC will do the undercover job, while Nick would go in and try to infiltrate the place.
> 
> Regarding the Razr phone, keep this in mind that this story is set in the mid-2000s, not too long after the events of "New York City," like a year to be exact, as well as a few years after "Streets of LA." Plus, both games had Motorola product placement, as well as Puma product placement, so why not reference them?
> 
> The character of Han is definitely a reference to the Fast & Furious series, and the racing scene is definitely reminiscent of the first few films. Plus, I had to reference the fact that some streets will get closed off, as they were in the first two films, whereas in the fourth film they weren't. However, the character portrayal is more like Johnny Tran from the first film. He would be a minor antagonist for Marcus, but more in the sense that Han has it in for him.
> 
> Until next time, peace out.


	11. A Familiar Place (Nick)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick sets off to infiltrate the Gulag while Rosie and another detective try to work a deal with Vlad.

**WEST HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES.**

On the same night that Marcus flew solo to go check out the racing scene, Nick joined Rosie, along with another detective to go undercover at the Gulag for the drug deal.

Rosie enlisted the help of Detective Ricardo "Rico" Cruz, a detective who had worked undercover in the LAPD's Gang Division, as well as worked in robbery/homicide. Ever since he joined the EOD, Chief Parks had him working on some cases involving gangs, which some had also taken part in drug distribution and also weapons deals.

Also, like Rosie, he has a history of gang activity, but he left that all behind. If anything, he should right at home with something like this. This shouldn't be too hard for him to pull off a convincing act as a bodyguard for Rosie.

But for them to make sure things don't get ugly, they needed some support. They had planned to go in wired, but they also needed a little extra support in case anything were to go down.

Earlier that day, Nick had discussed with the two detectives about how he would do a little infiltration, but he'll provide support if necessary. He even told them that he'll arrive separately from them and try to sneak into the club.

It was now evening, Rosie and Rico had arrived in the same car. Rosie had contacted that guy Pete from a few nights before when they met at the strip club. They had arrived in what appeared to be a silver muscle car with a blue racing stripe. It was one of the cars that EOD provided for undercover gigs.

Rosie was wearing a white jacket with a black top underneath, along with a white skirt and stiletto heels. Rico wore a gray suit and black shirt underneath the jacket. What was also noticeable was that he had a tattoo on the right side of his neck.

"Hey, Rosie, you sure you know what you're doing?" he said. "Are you sure Nick is reliable for support?"

"I think I got this guy where I want him," she said. "Nick may be a bit rough around the edges sometimes, but I have a feeling he won't start a gunfight if he doesn't have to."

"I'm just saying that I have heard my share of stories about Kang," Rico said. "The guy can be a madman at times. He'll shoot before he asks questions sometimes."

It was true what Rico was saying. Rosie should not forget that time when she got shot by a Triad member, but she didn't let that stop her from ever wanting to get back into field duty. Even though Nick had quite a track record of getting violent, it always resulted in getting the results he wanted.

"I don't see anything going down," Rosie said. "Besides, that guy Pete has it bad for me. He doesn't think I'm a cop at all. We should be fine."

They stood there waiting for their contact to show up. A line had formed outside the nightclub. It definitely had the feeling of a grand opening, or grand re-opening to be exact. The club was in business a few years prior but it had shut down for a bit. No one knew why, except for any law enforcement officials, as they knew that there had been criminal activity going in there, such as counterfeiting.

Across the street, a red sports convertible had pulled up and parked in a parking spot. Out of the car walked Nick, wearing a black suit with a white button-down shirt and a pair of shades, despite it being nighttime. It didn't matter. Nick was going undercover to blend in with the crowd as well.

He got out a pair of binoculars and saw his two fellow officers standing there. From a distance, he noticed an overweight man with two attractive women by his sides.

That's got to be the man that Rosie was talking about. Nick thought. But there had to have been something inside, assuming that deal would take place in the back alley of the club.

Back in front of the club, Rosie and Rico turned towards Pete and the two women, whom wouldn't surprise Rosie if they were strippers from the Body Fantastique. One woman was a young blonde woman who was wearing tight pants and a crop top and stiletto heels. The other was a Latina with black hair and was wearing a short silver dress. She also had tattoos on her right shoulder and left forearm and a small one on her right leg.

"Raquel, nice to see you here," Pete said.

"Pete," Rosie said and looked towards Rico. "This is my bodyguard Alejandro."

Rico looked towards Pete and saw that this guy gave him a vibe of a coked-out perverted type. "You try anything funny with Raquel here, then you and I are going to have a few words."

Pete raised his hands in the air and backed up a tad. "Relax, this whole thing is purely business, nothing more."

Rico turned his head a tad, and glint his right eye a bit and then turned towards Rosie. "Okay, I'll take your word for it."

Pete replied. "Let's all go inside. We got the VIP treatment tonight."

Rosie and Rico looked at each other and had little choice but to follow Pete and his two ladies towards the front door.

A tall and muscular Russian man stood right by the door. "Whoa, are you on the list?"

"I'm Pete Marshall; I'm on the VIP list." He looked towards the others. "They're with me."

The bouncer looked at the list. "Okay, you're good to go."

All five people got in. It gave Nick a signal to try to sneak inside. He was not about to stand in line with a lot of people to wait to get in. That wasn't his style.

_Okay, let's do this, ninja-style!_ He thought. Nick slowly tried to keep himself out of sight. He saw some Russian gangsters hanging around and having a smoke near a dumpster. They were talking in Russian. He couldn't make out what they were saying. He went full stop when he saw that they looked towards his direction. It was uncertain that they saw him, but he ducked nonetheless. The moment the two men got up and walked in the opposite direction, it was his time to move.

This back alley was pretty open, and from where Nick stood, he noticed right at the end of the corridor, the back of the club overlooked the Hollywood sign. He stealthily walked around the corner where there was an even bigger opening, as cars were parked with other men hanging around, as if they were waiting for more men to show up for what appeared to be the drug deal going down. That area also consisted of poles with basketball hoops on them.

Right when he was about to move forward, a Russian gangster was seen standing there. He was not completely in the field of vision of the others standing in the basketball courts. So what did Nick do? He grabbed the man by his neck and did a sleeper hold to knock him out. He then put his back against the nearby wall and peeked by to see if he would be in plain sight. Shockingly enough, their backs were turned in that moment. Nick quickly dove from that point towards the other corner.

Once he was home free, he was now on the right side of the club. A Russian man came walking out of the side door and saw Nick.

"What the…?" the man said. Right at that moment, he got out a walkie-talkie and was ready to inform about an intruder. But Nick thought ahead and got out a dart gun and squeezed the trigger to send a dart flying towards the man's neck. He knew that he would be out a lot easier with the dart going right there. And he was right, as the man was out right when the dart pierced his neck.

Nick made his move to head right to the door. He turned around and saw that the man was still out. _Ninjas got nothing on me._ He thought. He walked in and he looked around to make sure no one was watching him get in. At least not like how it happened when he snuck in the first time a few years prior.

When he infiltrated the Gulag club at that time, a Russian gangster spotted him and it stopped everything dead, enough that the DJ drew an AK-47 right towards him and it caused everyone on the dance floor and the bar area to leave the club.

The moment he went inside, the speakers were blaring "Hung Up" from Madonna and people were all on the dance floor dancing to the music. It looked like a busy night for any bouncers, or even any other personnel to scope out for any intruders trying to crash the establishment.

He looked around and saw Rosie and Rico walking with Pete and his entourage. They were walking towards the stairs to head upstairs, which seemed like the VIP area. He tried to move around in a way to blend in. The inside of the club was similar to how he remembered it: A DJ booth on a balcony, as well as a disco ball over the dance floor, and also a big screen on the wall. It all seemed familiar to him.

Nick knew that the office of the manager/owner was upstairs, but he had to find a way to get up there. He saw a couple of bouncers guarding the stairs.

_Think, Nick. You can do this._ He thought.

Meanwhile, Rosie and Rico followed Pete and his lady friends. The DJ then changed the song to "S.O.S." from Rihanna at that point. Pete sat down and put his arms around his ladies. Rosie and Rico had to maintain their cover.

"So Pete," Rosie said, even with the music blaring. "Where can we discuss our business deal?"

"What?" Pete leaned forward and put his right hand behind his ear. "I can't hear you."

Rosie raised her voice a tad. "I said where are we going to discuss business? Remember, we're here to talk to the main person."

"Oh, come on, we got to have some fun." Pete then got up and tried to dance towards Rosie and as he got closer, Rico went in and blocked him.

"Ms. Diaz said that this is strictly business. I don't want you touching her."

"I'm just trying to dance," Pete said. "Lighten up."

"She wants to keep it professional, nothing more," Rico said. "You got that?"

Pete reluctantly nodded. Rico was able to see that Rosie was right about what she said. Pete definitely has the hots for her, despite the women he went into the club with.

"Pete, we should wait for the supplier, or at least one of the suppliers," Rosie said. "Now where is he?"

"He should be here soon," Pete said and then sat back down on the seat. Rosie then leaned right towards the railing and saw Nick below trying his hardest to blend in with the crowd.

In a matter of minutes, through a door that said "KEEP OUT, EMPLOYEES ONLY," out walked a young man with a few men by his side. One man who stood to his right appeared to be a bit older and had a beard and wore a suit. The other was a bald and muscular man but was wearing a red T-shirt and a black leather vest. One could assume that one man was a right-hand man and the other was the enforcer of the operation.

"Well, Peter Caine," the young man said. "You are here, and you brought some company."

"Vlad, this is Raquel Diaz," Peter said. "She wants in on the action. She said that she is willing to work with us."

"Oh, that's right, you told me about this," Vlad said. "Come and follow me to where we should talk business."

Everyone got up and Vlad started to lead the way but then went to a stop.

"Oh, and Pete, you should leave your ladies behind," Vlad said. "Don't worry, I got a couple of men who can keep them company."

Out of the office walked a couple of other fellow Russian men, who looked a bit younger than some of the others. They approached the two young women and then took them to the dance floor downstairs, while the others walked down the stairs and headed in a different direction.

Nearby, Nick quickly climbed over the railing and onto the halfway point of the staircase. He had to be quick enough to ensure that the bouncers wouldn't suspect that someone snuck past them. He went right onto the second floor and saw that other people were hanging around and getting their drinks on. It was amazing how everyone else was too preoccupied in their own worlds to even notice anything going on around them.

Nick noticed that the door was closed, but was unlocked. He was going in, no matter what, but no manager or owner would leave the door open like that. He turned around, and again, no one seemed to bat an eye to this. No one is ever this preoccupied, or maybe patrons just didn't care.

Either way, Nick went inside to see if he can find anything. He had definitely been in that same office before, but now was not the time to reminisce. He was about to see if there was anything he could find.

He then saw something suspicious. Someone dressed in black was right by the desk and was searching the cabinets.

"Hey you, who are you? What are you doing here?"

The person then turned its attention towards Nick. The person wore a balaclava. The only thing that was visible was the person's eyes, but Nick took a closer look and saw that this person was of Asian descent.

"Hey, EOD, you're under arrest!"

The mysterious person threw something right towards him. He quickly dove out of the way and noticed that the projectile had cut right into the wall and stuck to it.

_Shurikens? The hell? Don't people know that those are used for distraction?_ Nick got up.

Shooting this person with his Desert Eagle would draw unwanted attention, so he drew his tranquilizer gun, but the person quickly ran towards Nick and delivered a hard roundhouse kick to Nick's hand to get the gun off of his hand. But the person wasn't done, as it spun around and delivered a hard spinning kick right to Nick's face, which caused his shades to fall from his face.

Nick quickly picked up his glasses and weapon and noticed that the person headed right towards the window and removed the screen from the window. Nick did not hesitate and ran right towards the window.

He looked down and saw what appeared to be the meeting with everyone. Before he got out, he noticed the person moving upward, which implied that the mysterious person climbed. So Nick climbed the moment he got out through the window. Right when he got closer to the roof, he saw the person talking into a phone in another language. Judging from how the voice sounded, it was definitely a man. But the language seemed not what he expected.

Is that Japanese he's speaking? So it definitely was not a Triad member, and definitely not a Korean gangster, or North Korean soldier out for revenge.

He drew his Desert Eagle and pointed a red laser right towards him. "Freeze, asshole! You got nowhere to go!"

The ninja man got close to the edge and got out a rope and grappling hook. He attached the hook right to the edge and then rappelled down to the ground below.

"Fuck!" He yelled. But then he saw a tour bus passing through. Even at night, the tour bus still ran, at least up until that time and then it would stop. "Oh here goes nothing."

Nick ran back and then ran right towards the edge of the roof and jumped right onto the upstairs part of the tour bus. Luckily, there were less people on the bus at that time, but everyone turned their attention towards him. He got up and said, "It's okay, I'm a police officer." He then flashed his badge. He turned around and saw the ninja running.

"Got to go; official police business!" The bus was going a little slow, which was his best bet to make the jump from the bus and saw a car pull up behind the bus. Unlike before, he went ahead and climbed over the back and then plopped right onto the hood of the car that was behind. The driver, who was a woman, popped her head out the window and yelled "Hey!"

Nick got up and faced the woman. "It must be raining cops in LA."

Nick then saw that the ninja was still standing there. Why he didn't continue running was anyone's guess. But it didn't matter, because Nick got up and made a break for him, as he ran right towards him. The ninja then looked up and then immediately ran away. Nick didn't want to waste any time. He went ahead and ran right for him.

The ninja quickly turned around and drew a kunai and then threw it right towards Nick. But Nick noticed a man and a woman right in front of him.

"Get down, you two!" He yelled as he dove right on the couple to get right into the pavement, and noticed the blade flew right over them and then fell to the ground. If not him, then one of the two could have eaten a kunai right then. They couldn't be any luckier in that moment.

"Excuse me, I got to go handle some shit," he told the couple.

He ran and saw that the ninja had turned from Sunset Boulevard onto La Cienega Boulevard. He then continued to run through traffic, as did Nick who was running behind him and then went into the alleys of some businesses. LA traffic was not something you would want to cross through, but neither man cared. He kept on running right for the man, but the man outran him no matter what. It reached a point where he no longer saw the man. Unbeknownst to Nick, the man had removed his mask and then saw a vehicle pull up in an alleyway with a Japanese woman driving.

[Kenji, what happened to you?] The woman said in Japanese.

[Jun, some fucking cop came running after me,] the man said. [This isn't over for us. We will soon deal with the people who stole our business from us, especially after Kobi died.]

The woman nodded her head and then they took off.

Nick tried to look for the man, but he just couldn't. It wasn't over for him. That person must know something, especially if he was digging through the desk of the owner. He then turned back around headed back for his car that was parked near the club.

Meanwhile, the meeting was still going on in the back alley of the Gulag.

"Okay, Ms. Diaz, after you saw what this does, when do you think we can get more money if you want to expand your business?" Vlad said.

"All in good time, sir," Rosie said. "First off, I'm going to need to see if there is any sort of deals we can make if we can cover the tracks of the money. Do you know anybody who can, you know, clean money? This payment is only to get some people to want it and then I need to increase the demand."

"I may know somebody who can help you with that, but I expect the rest of the money sometime soon, you hear?" Vlad said. "I am a busy man right now. I have other business deals going on. We'll be in touch, okay?"

"Sure thing, Vlad," Rosie said and then shook his hand.

The meeting had now adjourned, and Rosie and Rico took off to leave the club. As soon as they entered the car, the first thing that Rico said was, "Are you sure you know what you're doing here, Rosie?"

"Relax, Rico," she said. "I'm positive that this whole thing is new to this guy. He seems young. He said he knows how drug deals work as well as counterfeiting, but this whole thing seems new to him. Something tells me that he is working with a third party on this, but I don't know for sure."

"Why do you think that?" Rico said.

"Because that New York detective that we're working with knows something about this drug. There must be someone who is providing the Russians with the drugs. But it isn't just Pop, though. Something also tells me that the third-party has supplied them with cocaine and other things."

"You better be right about this," Rico said.

"I hope so," Rosie said and before she started the car, she heard her phone ring. "Hello, Nick?"

"Rosie, hey, what's the deal?" Nick said and then huffed and puffed.

"Nick, are you alright? You sound out of breath."

"I got into some shit just now. I think someone is trying to steal the drugs or something. But I don't know. I ran after this guy but I didn't catch him."

"Listen, Rico and I need to get out of here and then we'll talk more about it soon." You need to get some rest."

"Talk to you soon," Nick said. "I'll call you when I get out of here. I know you two can't blow your cover. I'll talk to you guys about it tomorrow."

Nick got into his red convertible and took off. There was something off about this. While Nick has dealt with his share of tough and quick adversaries, this guy was something different. When he heard the man talk, the Japanese threw him off. Why? What was he dealing with here? It was different when he dealt with North Korean soldiers before, but the Japanese? Could this be the Yakuza? If so, what do they want?

Maybe Marcus might know something about this.


	12. Reunited and it Doesn't Feel So Good (Marcus)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marcus interrogates Vivian about her boyfriend's involvement in the dealing.

Marcus sat at the kitchen table with Vivian right in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" Vivian broke the silence. "Why did you come out here?"

"Hey, I'm the one who asks the questions here," Marcus said. "I want you tell me what the hell's going on here."

"I'm just shocked that you're here at all," Vivian said. "I mean it's quite a ways away for you to pay me a visit."

"I'm here to help out the LAPD take on a case involving the drug known as Pop that somehow has come out here. I'm also here for other things, but that's not important. What I want to know is how you got into all this mess. I guess the crime life runs in your blood."

"I don't want to live the life, and you know that," Vivian said. "You sure you didn't come here to visit me? You sure traveled 3,000 miles for that."

"Not the case at all. And I know you are wondering how I found you. Let's just say a little bird told me."

"Oh, spare me that line," Vivian said. "Tell me how you really found me."

"I am working with the Elite Operations Division, and the detective I am working with is the brother of your martial arts teacher."

"Wait, Cary's brother?" She realized who he meant by her martial arts teacher. It didn't seem like she suspected that Lola also gave him and Nick the 411.

"I got word from some others about how your boyfriend is pushing Pop on the streets. Cary told me about a shiner you got recently. Did your boyfriend hit you?"

"That's none of your fucking business. Leeland hit me a lot, which was why I hated my home, especially after my father was killed by him and that evil bitch of a mother that he has."

"Okay, if you want to play that game, then I'll get out here. Though I will say this, I'm not sure if an abusive asshole is any better than dating a wannabe vampire. And for the record, Leeland is locked up in a cell in Rikers with no way of getting out, at least not soon. You are also far away from him, so he can't get to you anymore."

"Wait, okay, you win," Vivian took a deep breath. "No, Han did not hit me or anything like that. But some associates of his did. There are moments when I would run some…merchandise for him and some asshole has hit me once. Han confronted him about it, though. I want him to get out of it, but he said that the money is good and sometimes it's even better than the money he gets from the races."

"I heard he is selling Pop," Marcus said.

"Wait, Pop? Isn't that the drug that the Presidents Club used to sell?" Vivian said.

"The very same," Marcus said. "It's amazing to see how you know about it."

"It's not like I didn't know about any of the criminal life in New York," Vivian said. "I just tried to stay out of it. Even when my father was alive, he told me that he didn't want me to follow in his footsteps. But a long time ago, and this was sometime after Leeland's mother married my father, Leeland wanted in the life and wanted to rule the Shadow Tong."

"And the Shadow Tong is done with," Marcus said. "But you're going to tell me what your boyfriend is up to."

"Why should I tell you?" Vivian said.

"Because that drug was what caused some deaths in NYC," Marcus said. "Not just overdoses, but there had been some business disputes and for all we know, there may be some more problems coming along the way."

Vivian sat there in silence and then turned her attention away from him.

Marcus said, "Listen, I saved your life twice, from those Goths and from your asshole stepbrother. I put the Shadow Tong away. I even put the Presidents Club away. I could even tell you about the Palermo Mob and the Magdalena Cartel, but I don't think that matters here. You even said in your letter that you owe me after what I did for you. The least you could do is tell me what's going on."

Vivian then looked up at Marcus. She had no choice but to tell him, especially after what he just said to her.

"Okay, my boyfriend _is_ doing some dealing, but I didn't know it was Pop. He is just trying to make a little extra money on the side. I want him to stop, though.

"Okay, so now we're getting somewhere," Marcus said. "Is he Triad, Tong, or anything like that?"

"No, he is not involved in any of that shit," Vivian said. "He may be dealing some drugs and taking part in races, but he is not affiliated with any gangs."

"Tell me about your job at the strip club," Marcus said.

Vivian then looked up with her eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"You heard me. I was there the other night and saw you stripping. A partner and I were there to get some information and then right when we were about to leave, I saw you getting naked on stage."

Vivian turned her head away and then shook at she just heard.

"I know you're embarrassed, but you got to tell me."

Vivian said, "Okay, Gypsy, that one girl you walked with, she hooked me up with a job there. I was working as a waitress at this Chinatown bistro, which I think is run by the Triad. But I wasn't getting paid that well, especially when I was going to school for a little bit. I dropped out and then I was approached by Gypsy at a race one night and said that I got some moves when I would dance a bit and then I have a great body. She said that the tips and the pay are good. Besides, I just dance naked. I'm not fucking other guys or anything like that."

"Okay, but do you think that Han and Gypsy are fucking each other?" Marcus said.

"What? No! At least I don't think so." Vivian said.

Marcus heard the sound of her voice right then. It sounded to him like she was in denial about this, though Marcus suspected otherwise. To Marcus, Gypsy was comfortable with her sexuality that she threw herself at him. He wasn't sure if her boyfriend was faithful to her, but that wasn't important.

"Is Gypsy involved in that stuff?" Marcus said.

"I don't know," Vivian said. "She's involved in the races, but I don't think she could be involved in drug-dealing. That's about all I know."

"Okay, I'll take your word for it. Here is my number if you need to tell me something." Marcus then handed her a piece of paper with his phone number.

Marcus then got up and started heading towards the door.

"Officer Reed, wait," Vivian said and then stood up. "Listen, I can't thank you enough for saving my life those times. Sorry if I was a little rough with you earlier."

"It's okay. We'll talk more about this soon. I need to get out of here before Han gets here."

"He won't. We may have been together for about five months now, but we're not living together. This is my aunt's house. She and my uncle are asleep right now."

"Okay, good, but still, let me know if you find anything."

"I will," she said.

After that he walked away. He went inside the yellow sports car and then drove off. From a distance, that same car that he went up against was pulling up. The driver, who turned out to be Han, saw Marcus driving away.

"Who _is_ that guy?" Han said as he saw Marcus driving off. He then drove off without making a stop to see Vivian.


	13. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a bit since I've updated this story, but I'm back. I have had this idea in my head for a bit. Enjoy!

It was now morning. It was a Saturday. It had not been long since the street race that Marcus went to infiltrate, and also a drug deal that Rosie and her partner Rico went to check out undercover.

It may have been a Saturday, but for some of the detectives of the Elite Operations Division, it was not a day off. Even though Marcus wasn't a member and was only there on load from the PDNY, it wasn't a day off for him either. Not after he had gained an informant in someone who had crossed his path before.

Everyone had arrived at headquarters. Chief Parks stood before Nick, Rosie, Rico, and Marcus to see if they found any information.

"Okay, Reed, I want you to tell me what you found," the chief said. "I heard you went alone to check out the race scene out here. I mean I would prefer if I had any of my people go with you, but from what your lieutenant had told me, she said that you had broken up a race circuit on your own."

Marcus took a deep breath. He wasn't surprised that Dixon had told Parks about that. It was even on his profile that he had managed to break up a street race circuit, as well as a fight club circuit.

"You are right about that," Marcus said. "But that wasn't what this was about. One of Kang's CI's told us that a stripper had taken part in the races, but it seems that someone who is involved in the racing is involved in pushing Pop out here. So I went to check some shit out. It turned out that the guy's girlfriend was the flag girl for the races. I also know her, as we have a bit of a history."

"I hope you're not making this too personal, Marcus," Nick said with a snide tone.

"That ain't the case, Nick," Marcus said. "She's going to help me with this. Besides, I could tell the boyfriend already doesn't like me, so I think I can work with this."

"Wait," Parks said. "Did you say you know this girl? Is she from New York?"

"Yeah, but it's very complicated to tell you about how I know her," Marcus said. "But the girl told me that she had been attacked by some associates. So I am really curious about what's going on here. As far I know, he's not involved in any gang shit with the Tong or Triad or any shit like that, but I have a feeling that there is stuff that she's not telling me. I beat her boyfriend in a race, so I think maybe this is a way for me to get more answers."

"Hmmmm," Parks said as she stood there deep in thought. "Well, you'll have to find out sooner or later." Parks then looked right towards Nick, Rosie, and Rico. "So did any of you find anything last night?"

Rosie took a deep breath. "Rico and I got to play ball with this young Russian guy who runs the Gulag. He seems young, like mid-20s, but something tells me he has been in the shit for a while. So he wants us to make some money sometime soon. But I have a feeling he is in over his head."

Rico added, "Maybe it's just me, but something tells me that there is also another party involved."

The chief and the other three detectives all looked at him with an expression of "what?"

"It's just a hunch, but Rosie and I saw that this guy might be a bit in over his head in this type of field," Rico said. "I had been around gangs before becoming a cop. I've seen when guys are under pressure when trying to make money. This guy seems young that running a business may be a bit much for him. So it's possible that he is working with someone on this."

"You don't think that guy Pete is helping him, do you?" Rosie said.

"No, but he said that he has other businesses to attend to," Rico said. "But we don't have any proof."

"What about my side of the story?" Nick interrupted. "There might be more than meets the eye, and I should know. I went to go check out the boss's office. The moment I walk in there, I see some guy in a ninja getup going through the desk and shit."

Everyone around had looks of shock on their faces.

"The guy was quick to fight back when I tried to catch him, but he ran off," Nick said. "He went up the roof and then jumped to a tour bus and then kept running. He kept on running and running and even tried to fight back at me some more."

"Was that what happened to you last night?" Rosie said. "No wonder you were out of breath."

"Yeah, but that's not the kicker here," Nick said. "I heard the man talk. He spoke Japanese. He wasn't just dressed as a ninja. He had the abilities of one. He kicked me ass in the office. He even had shurikens and kunais on him."

"A Japanese ninja?" Marcus said. The expression on his face started to give off a vibe that maybe he suspected something.

"Yeah, this is beyond something I've dealt with, at least out here," Nick said. "Do you think we're maybe dealing with the yakuza here?"

The yakuza? Marcus thought. Just hearing that had caused quite a stir in his head. The fact that Pop had made its way out into the west coast was one thing, but then he remembered when he dealt with the Presidents Club. Lionel Jones previously had connections with the yakuza, particularly the boss known as Kobi.

"Hold up, did you just say the yakuza?" Marcus said.

"Yeah, I did," Nick said. "Why? You've dealt with them?"

Marcus took a deep breath. "As a matter of fact, I have dealt with them."

Before Marcus was about to talk, through the front door of the EOD headquarters walked two men. One was older, with a bald head. He wore a pair of aviator sunglasses and had a suit on with an FBI insignia on the jacket. The other man was around the same age, but appeared younger but not by much. He had a full head of hair and a beard, as well as sunglasses and a similar suit on with the FBI insignia on the jacket.

Parks looked up and saw the two men approach them. Nick, Marcus, Rico, and Rosie all turned their attentions towards the two feds.

"Well, well," the bald FBI agent said. "How funny is it that the EOD managed to get involved in a big case that we're trying to bust ourselves."

"Nice to see you, too, Masterson," Parks said. "Actually, we're all trying to figure out this case involving the designer drug called Pop."

Masterson? Marcus thought. He had remembered what Whitting had told him before.

"Ah, yes," Masterson said. "That drug that came straight from New York and came from Japan, but somehow it's now making the rounds out here. I hope you and your crew of rebels don't try to mess this case up. We're trying to sort it out ourselves."

Masterson then looked at Nick. "That includes you."

The other agent nodded his head.

"By the way, this is Agent Sullivan, we're working together on this case," Masterson said.

Sullivan then looked at the team involved in the case. But then went to a complete stop when he saw Marcus. Why did he go full stop in that moment? Did he know Marcus?

Sullivan started talking, "I think you should get off this case while you can. We have a man involved in working with potential buyers. So we might need you off this case ASAP."

"Whoa, is that what you came in here for?" Parks said. "You should have called me to let me know about this ahead of time."

"Sullivan and I found out about some buyer coming in from New York," Masterson said. "Someone from our unit has been working with the Russians in regards to the drug. But now that someone had come from New York, it will lead us to who the real person behind it is. This is beyond what you guys do."

Marcus and Masterson suddenly made eye contact with each other.

"And you are…?" Masterson said.

"Masterson, this is Marcus Reed of the Police Department of New York," Parks said. "He is here on loan to help us bust the case involving the drugs."

"New York, huh?" Masterson said in such a sarcastic tone. "Looks like you're out of your jurisdiction."

"Like the lady said, I'm here to help," Marcus said. He wasn't about to take that from a veteran FBI agent, especially one who acted like he was all high and mighty like this guy did.

"By the way, did I hear that your name is Masterson?" Marcus said. "Tell me something, do you know someone named Gabriel Whitting? He told me to tell you that he was sorry for almost getting you killed a while back."

Masterson's jaw dropped a tad when he heard that. He took off his shades and his eyes went into a bit of a glare while his nose tightened.

"Whitting? You know him?" Masterson said. "That guy's a nutjob."

Marcus scoffed. "You ain't got to tell me twice." He chuckled a bit.

Sullivan tapped Masterson on the shoulder. He held his cellphone up to signal that he needed to either make or take a call. Masterson nodded his head and mouthed "go" to him and then put his sunglasses back on.

"Masterson," Parks said. "Marcus is here to work with Nick. Reed had helped take down New York's crime syndicates, but one of the gangs he took down had dealt with Pop. Marcus knows something about this drug. He and Nick had found some clues to the drug. With all due respect, you should let my people handle their stuff. You guys can handle it as well. Maybe we'll work together again. After all, Nick did bring down that counterfeiting operation a few years back. Remember?"

Masterson sighed. "Okay, if we have to work together, then fine. But just make sure Kang and Reed here don't cause any shit." He looked towards Nick. "That goes double for you."

"Geez, who peed in your coffee this morning?" Nick said. "We're just doing our job here, Masterson."

Masterson then looked at Marcus and closed in towards his face a bit. "Just know one thing, Reed. Watch your back with this guy. He's trouble."

Masterson walked away and headed towards the front door, while Marcus scoffed at what that man just said to him. Masterson then looked back towards Parks and the others and said, "We'll be in touch."

The moment Masterson left, Marcus said, "Man, what's with _that_ guy?"

Nick replied, "Don't worry about him. He tries to act behind the book. We worked together a while back. He had it in for me because of some shit happened."

Marcus looked over at the front door. Both agents were long gone, but one thing that was on his mind was the other agent. Why was he looking at him like that? There had to be some reason for it.

"Alright, we need to discuss some things," Parks said. "Rosie and Rico are working undercover with this Russian drug dealer, but we need to find some more stuff. There has to be some other things around here for us to look for."

"Wait just a sec, Chief," Nick said. "I think I could talk to my CI about where to find any other evidence."

"You're not talking about that washed up actress Lola Gees, are you?" Rosie said.

"Marcus and I got her to sing like a canary the other day," Nick said. "She seems to know her shit, especially when she knows she has to help me in exchange for me getting her that community service gig at my brother's school. So she might know what other places we can look."

"I just hope you're right about this, Nick," Rico said. "I heard she almost kicked your ass when you tried to bust her."

"She clearly didn't know me," Nick said. "But I have my ways of getting people to help me."

Marcus then cut in. "We're not going over to her house again, are we?"

"Nah, I can give her a call," Nick said. "That way we can go from here where to find what we're looking for."

"Why don't you two go find some more leads?" Parks said. "Rico and Rosie need to talk about how to bring down the drug ring."

"Don't worry about us, Chief," Nick said. "I…I mean, _we_ know what we're doing. Come on, Marcus, let's go."

Nick and Marcus then took off to go find any other leads. They left the station and went to Nick's red sports car this time. The drove off, but then another car happened to be parked adjacent to the station. It started to go in a similar direction to the two detectives.

They cruised along the streets of Los Angeles. Nick got out his cellphone and proceeded to call Lola.

"Hello, Lola," Nick said. "My partner and I need to know something. Do you know any other leads to the drugs? We really need to crack this case."

Nick continued to talk, while Marcus got out his Razr phone and noticed a few new messages. One was from Gypsy, which consisted of a picture of looking all sexually suggestive with her in her bathroom and wearing a revealing bra. The other was from Vivian, which said the following:

_If you want to know where to find some of Han's friends or any associates involved in the drugs, I think you should go check out Chinatown tonight. There is supposed to be a meeting or a drug deal. Call me if you want to know more._

Meanwhile, Nick was still on the phone.

"Okay, you better be right about this, Lola," Nick said. "Talk to you soon."

Nick then hung up.

"So, Nick," Marcus said. "Tell me about that agent back there who was getting off his fucking high horse and some shit."

"Masterson?" Nick said. "Well, let me tell you something. A while back I was trying to crack a laundering and counterfeiting case with the Triads and the Russians. When I went into this spa alone, some crazy shit went down. I got out alive, but then I heard that the FBI had the spa under surveillance. So for the rest of the case, Masterson and his men had worked with us, but he had it in for me. He thinks I'm a loose cannon. But really, let's just say that after being in the shit for so long, it can really make someone do shit their own way."

"That's the vibe I got from him," Marcus said. "But I was wondering about his partner. He looked at me like something was wrong, but he didn't say shit. Something was off about him."

"I wouldn't worry, Reed," Nick said. "Besides, if you've been in the shit like I have, you're going to find that there are more people out for you than you realize."

"Yeah, you said it," Marcus said. "I've been in the shit myself. I am lucky I'm still here, but who in the fuck would want to me out in these parts?"

"You never know," Nick said.

They continued to drive, but a little farther behind, that same car was driving in their direction. What exactly was going on here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to leave it here. I'm going to have this end on a cliffhanger to leave you guessing what will happen next.
> 
> I finally brought in Masterson from "True Crime: Streets of LA." It was time he got into this story. He'll play more of a role, you'll see.
> 
> There will be more with some stuff, like the subplot involving Vivian's boyfriend, as well as Rosie and Rico's undercover work. I will also bring in some more with the villains of the story. Just wait.


	14. The Raid

They had a lead, at least from Nick's CI. Lola Gees may not be able to leave the house unless it's for her job at the martial arts school or to get essentials, but she had an ear to the street. Though she was on house arrest via court order, Nick had made a deal with her and her lawyer to have her be his informant. She had more connections to the outside than one would think, as she had a connection with Gypsy, the stripper from the Body Fantastique, as well as Vivian Shen, and possibly her boyfriend Han.

The two detectives were told that there may be a lead, but to what, exactly? Where exactly were they going, and what were they in for?

They drove along the streets of Los Angeles heading to their destination. It seemed that there was a new war on drugs. But for some, it could be more than that.

"So tell me something, Reed," Nick said. "What do you know about this drug? The chief told me that you had dealt with this shit before. She said that you have some knowledge about this stuff."

"You really want to know, huh?" Marcus said. "By the way, you can call me Marcus. Anyway, about a year ago, I had dealt with a crime syndicate that was dealing with this drug. You see, it turned out that the main dealer was Lionel Jones, the head of Zen Empire Records. Turned out that he got into some heavy shit with the yakuza."

"Huh?" Nick turned his head a bit towards Marcus, while maintaining his focus on the road. Maybe the altercation with that ninja was not a coincidence after all.

"I had met with the Kumicho of the NYC chapter of the yakuza," Marcus said. "She was actually Lionel Jones's mentor, but then started making his own version of Pop, which pissed off Kobi and her crew, enough that some members of the Presidents Club were found dead at a club in Manhattan called Club Tadow! Kobi wanted to get back at Lionel Jones for it, but ended up killed in the process. But now we must know how it got out here. Jones is locked up. The head of the yakuza in NYC is dead. I was working with the feds and they managed to get a lot of the supply, but somehow someway, either someone jacked the supply that we confiscated or someone took what was left and started cooking it with the recipe or some shit."

"You said something about the yakuza," Nick said. "I don't know about you, but I dealt with a ninja last night. He was looking for some stuff in the office of that Russian boss. That young boss, who thinks he is hot shit. But anyway, I don't know if he had anything to do with the connection to the case that you busted, but something tells me he is going to come back in a big fucking way."

Nick then paused. The streets were full of traffic. With a Mick's on one corner of the street in the same lot where an NYC Outfitters was, as well as a Mas location, they were in a district with fast food restaurants in the same lot as clothing stores.

"You know something, you really know to hold yourself together in situations," Nick said. "I will say this, I thought you were some typical by-the-books cop who wants to play by the rules when you came here. But after the stuff that we went through with those two assassins, you seem like you know your shit. This is the first time in a while that I have worked with a partner."

"Let me guess, you're one of those 'I work alone' cops, aren't you?" Marcus said.

"Mostly, yes," Nick said.

"When was the last time you had a partner?" Marcus said.

"A while," Nick said. "You know Rosie, right? Well, she was assigned to be my partner, but after getting shot, she was assigned to a desk job, but we still worked together. You might think that I work alone because of some lone wolf-type shit, but that's not the case. I mostly work alone, because I have been in the shit for a long time and this is a fucking dangerous job. One partner I had got shot in the line of duty. He was lucky, but he decided that this shit wasn't for him. So he became a teacher. If I was going to work with anybody, they better know what they're getting themselves into. I don't allow anybody who's green to work with me. I don't got time to babysit anyone."

Marcus's eyes widened a tad, as did his eyebrows. Not so much that he didn't find what he said plausible, but rather that he was a bit surprised to see that he was considerate of some people that he didn't want them working with him.

"So tell me, Marcus," Nick said. "Do you usually work with a partner or do you work alone? Also, you don't seem like you've been a detective for that long."

"Well, it's kind of complicated if you ask me," Marcus said. "I've only been a detective for about a year now. I mainly work street crimes, but I got into some heavy shit last year. Not only when I was working with the feds, but also busting drug rings, counterfeiting rings, robbery rings, and prostitution rings. You may know about how I went undercover in street racing and fight club circuits, but trying to take down those major crime rings was not easy. Shit, I almost got killed. Let's not forget that I worked with the feds on major cases. And get this, I worked on my own. Yes, I had support, but I went in there on my own and each time, I went in not sure if I was getting out alive."

Much to Marcus's surprise, Nick was a bit impressed by what he was told.

"Did you have a partner before?" Nick said.

"I did, but shit didn't work out," Marcus said, looking out the window. "Okay, I did have a partner when I was working a uni cop, but I was set to get my start in the Organized Crime Unit. My partner and mentor, well let's just say that I thought he was killed, only to realize that he'd been playing me like a fucking piano the whole time."

Nick looked over at him with a look of intrigue and shock. Even though they had only known each other for a few days up to that point, it became even clearer that he had misjudged before.

"Did you ever get your start in that unit?" Nick said.

"Nah, it hasn't happened yet," Marcus said. "I still want to, but even the shit in the streets is just as bad as dealing with shit with the big dogs. I still want to work with the OCU, but I am fine where I'm at right now."

"Shit, Marcus," Nick said. "It doesn't matter if you're working the streets, narcotics, homicide, gangs, any of that shit will likely have you end up in a fucking body bag if you're not careful."

Marcus nodded. "I hear that. So where are we going?"

"Lola gave me the 411 on some house somewhere in Venice," Nick said. "She said she knows about some cook living out there. She got word that this fucker cooks meth, crack, any type of shit that'll get you fucked up in a heartbeat. Sometimes he'll cook up some of that club shit like Ecstasy or Speed."

"You don't think that this guy is cooking up Pop, do you?" Marcus said.

"You never know," Nick said. "Even if he wasn't, we could probably get rid of this drug problem faster, you know."

"I hear you on that," Marcus said.

After a while, the two detectives made it out to Venice. Nick was given the address by Lola. The area was less than what one would expect from a beach town. It was about as glamorous as Santa Monica, even though Venice was just a town over. But it still had some houses that seemed to belong to rich folk and then you have some houses that are for regular folk. The question on both detectives' minds was what on earth they were dealing with, especially in this part of town. It would be like having a criminal element in somewhere like Beverly Hills or Hollywood. Not that there wasn't, but not to the degree of how some would perceive areas like Watts, Compton, Chino, Whittier, Florencia, etc.

But to be careful, Nick parked his yellow sports car far away. He had to keep a low profile. In fact, they both did. While they were parked, Nick reached for the radio.

"Okay, attention anybody in the vicinity, my partner and I are on the vicinity of Marina del Rey and Venice," Nick said. "We have word of a drug lab in the area. My partner found an address that my CI gave me."

Nick told the units the address. Marcus looked around. It was confusing to him about this area, but then again, he dealt with scumbags from Harlem to the Upper West Side and Upper East Side. The same could be said about criminals committing crimes in Times Square of all places. He could only imagine if even the richest crime boss has a place in the Hamptons.

"My partner are about to go in," Nick said. "Don't cause any suspicion, over."

As soon as the conversation had ended, the two detectives exited the vehicle. The car wouldn't arouse suspicion, as they were close to the beach. For all anybody knew, the car could belong to some wealthy person from Palisades or Bel-Air, among other high-end districts in Los Angeles County.

"Got a plan?" Marcus said.

Nick got out his two Desert Eagles and holstered them inside his jacket.

"Partner, I always got a way with getting in," Nick said. "The question is what will go down."

Marcus got out his .45 and also a mini-mirror in case he needed to see through windows. "Always come prepared."

"We got this," Nick said.

* * *

From a distance, the same car from before had pulled up from the corner of the intersection. Two familiar men were in the car. One was Ron on the passenger seat. The other was Trey, who was driving. A couple of other men were in the backseat. One was Mike and the other was AK, Bobby's enforcer and right-hand man.

"There they go right there," Ron said. "How 'bout we roll on them and clap them right now?"

"Nah, that ain't what the boss would want us to do," AK said. "Besides, we got to wait for those Russian dudes come soon. They want to take care of that other pig themselves. We wanna just smoke that nigga. We're gonna wait."

AK pulled out his cellphone and made a call.

Nick and Marcus had split up. Nick tried to act like someone who was looking for his dog, asking some random people on the street if they had seen a Cockapoo and doing the typical dog whistle. Meanwhile, Marcus went across the street and walked like anybody else would. It was warm out, yet he was wearing his favorite black jacket with the red symbol on the back, while Nick was wearing his leather jacket over a t-shirt. They stood out in comparison to people wearing beachwear, whether it's swimming gear or wetsuits as some looked like surfers in the area.

It was time to make their move. Nick went up to the door and knocked on the door. Marcus, on the other hand, went to the side of the house and ducked. He pulled out his mirror. He looked through the reflection and found what looked like a young man sitting on the edge of a bed with what looked like a naked young woman under bed covers. The man looked like he was naked. Through the same reflection looked like a silhouette of a woman taking a shower.

_The fuck went on here? Looks like you guys had quite a night here._ Marcus thought.

Nick was at the front door and a young woman in what looked like a bikini answered the door.

"Hello, miss, I'm looking for a dog, have you seen him? I think I saw him running around here," Nick said.

The woman said, "I don't know what you're talking about, I didn't see a fucking dog around here."

On Marcus's end, through the reflection, a couple of Caucasian men burst through the bedroom. The woman under the covers jumped as she looked up at those men.

"What the fuck, man? What's going on?" the man on the bed said.

"Someone's at the fucking door!" a tall and muscular man with facial hair said. "We got word that some pigs are onto us!"

Another man, who looked to be of Pacific Islander descent, looked around with a Glock in his hand. "We got to be ready."

The moment Marcus heard that, his eyes widened and his mouth opened a tad. It was as if the people in the house knew that they were coming.

A couple of other men went straight for the closet to pull out a box. What was in the box? A bunch of arms ranging from Uzis, Mac-10s to even AK-107s, APS-95s, among others.

_What the fuck? What kind of fucking firepower do they need?!_ Marcus thought. He wasted little time and got out a radio that he had in order to reach any units near the area.

"What the fuck are you doing? Weren't we supposed to sit on that shit?" the naked man said.

"These are _our_ guns!" the bearded man said. "Those Russians told us to sit on the other arms. We have them hidden somewhere. Right now, go put some fucking clothes on!"

"Shit, alright! Damn!" the naked man said.

Outside, Marcus spoke right into the radio. "Attention to the all the units in the area, be careful," Marcus said. "The guys here are pulling out an arsenal. Make sure that the detective at the front door doesn't flash his badge."

One of the guys went into the kitchen was holding an MP5 and looked out the window. From his view, some squad cars were rolling in.

"Oh shit! Shit! We're FUCKED!" the guy said. "Hey, you better make sure you don't fire towards the garage or else we're really fucked! This place will blow all to hell."

"Out of my fucking way," the bearded man said.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nick was still trying to talk to the woman about looking for the alleged missing dog.

"Look, your dog ain't in the backyard or anywhere," the woman said. "Now get the fuck out of my face."

Nick wasn't about to have anymore of it.

"EOD, gorgeous," Nick said.

As soon as he said that, the door opened, the bearded man quickly sprayed with his APS-95, with the scantily-clad woman right in his line of sight. Nick quickly reacted and pulled the lady out of range as so many rounds fired directly towards them. It was a miracle that he managed to get both of them out of the shooter's sights that luck would definitely be the right term to use.

At a moment's notice, Nick drew one of his Desert Eagles and squeezed the trigger to send a slug right to the shooter's right leg, letting out some splatter in the process, with the bullet being a hollow point. The woman then ran out of there so that she wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

The man screamed at the top of his lungs, dropped to the ground. Nick ascended right from the ground. The APS-95 was so close to the shooter that he reached it with no problem, but Nick had other plans. The bearded shooter reached for the rifle, enough that he gripped the handle and placed his index finger close to the trigger. For that, Nick stepped on the man's hand and quickly kicked the weapon from his hand.

"Killing you would be way too easy, my friend," Nick said.

"Fuck you, pig!" the wounded shooter said.

"Music to my ears," Nick said. He turned his attention elsewhere. The man wasn't going anywhere, not after the injury he had suffered. He may know something.

Meanwhile, Marcus made his way inside the house through the back door.

"Police, drop your weapons!" Marcus yelled.

Another guy holding a Mac-10 immediately opened fire, spraying rounds towards the kitchen and towards the downstairs bathroom where the other woman taking a shower was. The shower had a glass sliding door. The bullets had hit the glass, leading to a loud shriek from the woman showering.

Lucky for Marcus, he quickly ducked the moment the man fired his weapon. The man saw him on the floor, pointed the submachine gun right at him with his finger on the trigger. Gunshots were let out, but not from the thug, but from Marcus, who still had his .45 Special in his hands and let out three shots directly to the man's chest as he watched the man drop to the ground.

The Pacific Islander from before leaned behind a doorway in another room in the house in a hallway that went towards the living room. He had a SPAS-12 in his hand. He saw Nick looking around. Nick saw a staircase and was ready to make his way up the stairs. The Islander had Nick right in his line of sight.

"Drop it, asshole!" Marcus said pointing the weapon towards the back of the man's head. In a heartbeat, the man turned around and let out big buckshot right towards Marcus, who dove in such quick succession, even though part of the buckshot had grazed him a tad.

Much to his surprise, the Islander went away to look for Nick, who had been scoping the house. Some of the other bedrooms had some other women in the house and some other young men who looked to be too high to engage in battle. So he left them alone.

"Hey, pig!" the Islander with the shotgun said.

Nick turned around. He saw that the man was ready to blow a hole in him. So Nick jumped backwards and pointed his Eagles forward let out a singular shot from both hands, with each slug landing right to his chest.

Nick got back up and saw a young man getting out of an upstairs bathroom. The young man wore beach shorts and was shirtless. He pointed his gun towards the young man.

"Don't hurt me, please!" the young man and raised his arms in the air.

Nick put down the gun in his left hand. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a cop. I want to know something, where is the cook?"

The young man, deep in fear, had no choice but to tell Nick. "He's in the garage. His lab is in there. But do not shoot him or anything. We'll blow the fuck up if you do."

"You think I don't know that," Nick said with a slight smile. "I know what I'm doing. Thanks, kid."

Nick immediately went back downstairs to check out the area.

Another gun-toting lowlife held the same bikini-clad woman from before in a human-shield position.

"Alright, cops, I don't want to do this!" the man said.

The woman tried to break away from him and told him, "Get off me! Let me go!"

Nick was slowly walking down the stairs. The man held a Beretta right to the poor woman's head.

"Don't come any closer or I'll blow this bitch's head off!" the man said.

Nick quickly drew one of his Desert Eagles with his right hand. The laser pointed right to the man's forehead.

"Don't make this any easier for me," Nick said.

The man pressed the Beretta's barrel right to the woman's head. The man had the finger on the trigger like he was ready to make his move. Nick squeezed the trigger letting out a hollow point bullet right to the man's dome, as blood and brain matter splattered all over the wall, the floor, and of course, the woman, who was screaming at the top of her lungs in that moment.

Nick got closer to her and said, "If I were you, I would get out of here, ASAP."

The woman trembled and breathed hard, tears ran down her face, even with some blood all over her. She nodded her head and ran straight towards the door. She saw some black men with guns in their hands. Her jaw dropped and eyes bulged at the sight of them, as she knew that they weren't cops, but were likely associates of the men in the house. For that, she ran as fast as she could, didn't matter if she was barefoot or not.

Nick went ahead to look for the garage. No one was going to try anything else, not after what just happened. He opened the door and saw what appeared to be a young man in a lab coat and had goggles on his face.

"So you're the cook," Nick said while pointing his handgun right to the man.

"You shoot me, you blow everything up," the cook said.

"Relax, I'm not stupid," Nick said. "Just don't give me a reason. I was told that you're cooking up Pop in here."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" the cook said.

"Oh come on, don't act like you don't know," Nick said. "I know I see some packs of meth, heroin, crack, and other kinds of shit that will get you fucked up, but with Pop being the latest drug on the streets, I know that you're cooking up that shit, too. Am I wrong, _Richard_?"

"I swear I don't know what you're talking about," the cook said. "And how do you know my name?"

"Not important," Nick said and looked through some of the stashes nearby and found a bag full of Pop pills. "You were saying?"

"Shit," Richard said. "Okay, you got me. But you don't know who you're fucking with, cop. We are…"

"We?" Nick said. "You mean you and those guys out there or who is left of them?"

"Yeah, we're working with the Russians," Richard said. "I can't explain it enough. You'll have to talk to Bunker out there."

Nick assumed that Richard meant the guy he shot earlier. Good thing he didn't kill him now. It was time to bring him and the other guy in.

* * *

Meanwhile, Marcus continued looking inside the house and out of nowhere, a naked woman, presumably the woman who was showering before, attacked him from behind.

"Bastard! You son of a bitch!" the naked woman said.

She shoved Marcus towards the bathroom mirror. Marcus dropped to the ground and the woman started kicking him. The woman opened one of the drawers and got out a knife and brandished it in a stabbing position.

"Oh shit!" Marcus said and slid away from her. He got to his feet. He saw that this woman was holding a knife. It would be unfair to use his pistol right on her, not to mention it would be unpleasant to shoot someone who was unclothed.

"You don't want to do this, lady," Marcus said.

"Fuck you!" she yelled with an angry tone and slashed the knife right towards him. Marcus quickly jumped backwards, but tripped over the toilet went into the tub full of shards.

Knowing that this would give her the advantage to stab him right then and there, he thought ahead and kicked her right in the gut so that he could get back up.

But she didn't give up. She went ahead and tried to slash Marcus again. But Marcus grabbed her right hand and slammed it right to the wall, causing her to drop the knife. It was either that or twisting her arm. He quickly shoved her to the ground and drew his pistol and pointed it right at her.

"Like I said, you don't want to do this," Marcus said. The lady raised her arms in the air.

"Go put some clothes on," Marcus said. "I'm taking you in."

But through the back door, a black man snuck in. It was Mike. He had an Uzi in his hand. Along with him, a Russian man came with him. They wanted to make this a simple job. All they were there to do was take out the two detectives.

"Okay, Oleg," Mike said. "You go find your guy, while I'll go find mine."

Oleg nodded his head.

Marcus supervised the woman, who got dressed. He then proceeded to cuff her. No way was he going to let her run after being assaulted like that. He got her to her feet, but Marcus sensed something was amiss nearby. Footsteps were heard, slow ones at that.

Because of that, he leaned in towards the now-dressed woman and said, "This will hurt a bit." He pushed her to the ground and rushed right to the wall next to the doorway.

Mike had walked in with his Uzi and saw the woman lying on the floor with her hands handcuffed behind her.

"What the fuck?" Mike said and felt a piece of metal pressed right against the back of his head.

"Hello, Mike, miss me?" Marcus said. "Drop your gun."

He dropped the gun, a scowl rose on the thug's face. He knew that Marcus had gotten him again.

"I want to know one thing, what the fuck does Bobby Green want from me?" Marcus said.

"Fuck you, pig!" Mike said and turned around to elbow Marcus right in the gut, causing him to drop his pistol and grabbed Marcus his by his head and slammed him against the wall. He grabbed the back of Marcus's head and drove him face first right against the door.

But Marcus wasn't about to have any of it. He elbowed him right in the gut and grabbed him and threw him into the hallway. He picked up his pistol.

"Mike, we can do this the easy way or the hard way," Marcus said.

A smile emerged on Mike's face as he saw that the back door was open slightly. Marcus holstered his gun and was ready to take the thug in for questioning, but Mike had other plans. Mike charged right towards Marcus and grabbed him by the legs and burst right through the back door, causing it to break and ended up in the backyard. Mike slammed Marcus to the ground, almost like he delivered a spinebuster.

Mike saw that Marcus was out of it, but Mike wasn't done. He saw a lawnmower nearby. He saw that it was a different kind that didn't need to be gripped to keep the motor running. He set the mower on and knocked it over. He grabbed Marcus by his head and drove him right towards the mower. Mike pushed Marcus's face right towards the motor. It was at that moment Marcus did not have a chance to even fight back. He was probably going to accept his fate right then.

"Police! Let him go!" A voice yelled nearby.

Mike turned around and saw some uniformed beat cops, as well as bike cops with guns drawn towards him. He had no choice but to comply and let Marcus go, as he dropped to the lawn face down and breathed hard after what he had just gone through.

* * *

Back inside, Nick had guided Richard back into the main part of the house. Richard saw how messy the house had gotten. Not because of some parties that these guys hold at times. No, it was because of what had gone down not long before.

As soon as they went to the living room, they saw Oleg standing over Bunker with a gun pointed at him. Bunker was still lying there after Nick had shot him before.

"…Did you tell that cop anything?" Oleg said.

"I didn't say shit!" Bunker said.

"Drop the fucking gun, asshole!" Nick said. "EOD!"

Oleg looked up and saw Nick pointing a Desert Eagle at him.

"Nick Kang Wilson, what a surprise," Oleg said.

Just then, Nick's eyes got bigger. He hadn't heard anybody refer to him with the Wilson at the end in a while. What did this all mean?

"How do you know my name?" Nick said.

"Not important, just that you're going to die, right now," Oleg said as he brandished his weapon towards him.

"You're surrounded, motherfucker!" a voice yelled. Marcus made his way back inside the house, along with the uniformed cops and bike cops. Through the front door, more uniformed cops made their way inside and surrounded the Russian hitman.

"We're taking you in, asshole," Nick said.

It wasn't long until the living remaining people were cuffed and hauled off in squad cars that were surrounding the area, including the man who wielded the MP5 and the woman he was in the room with. They didn't get involved, but they were in the scene of the crime. So they were being taken in for questioning.

From a distance, AK, Ron, and Trey saw everyone being taken in, including Mike. They even saw the man Oleg being taken as well, who appeared to have gone alone, as there was no other support for him.

From another distance, an even farther distance at that, on a bridge on Marina del Rey, a Japanese man, along with a few others, looked through a pair of binoculars. The Japanese man turned out to be Kenji.

["There's that cop from before,"] Kenji said. ["I see one of those Russian guys that I saw the other night. We'll get to them soon. Let's go

* * *

Nick and Marcus walked away to get back to the car. Nick had an angry look on his face, like there had to have been a reason that man knew his whole name.

"Nick, what's wrong? You look pissed," Marcus said.

Nick didn't say a word. He just went straight for the driver's side, while Marcus went straight for the passenger's side. The moment Nick got in the driver's seat, he immediately started talking.

"That Russian guy not only knew my name, but he knew my full name," Nick said.

"What? What are you talking about?" Marcus said.

"He called me Nick Kang _Wilson_," Nick said. "That's my full name."

"Hold up, can you explain this to me?" Marcus said.

"Wilson is actually my birth last name," Nick said. "Kang is actually my mom's maiden name. To make a long story short, when my dad went missing a long time ago, my brother Cary and I went to live with my mom's relatives in Hong Kong and we went by Kang to blend in. My mom is dead, by the way, so is my dad. I'll tell you the full story soon. But right now we need to get back to HQ."

Marcus nodded his head.

"But first things first," Nick said as he reached for his Motorola Razr phone. He called a certain and waited for it to go through.

"Hello, Lola," Nick said. "I want to know something, did you set me up?"

"What? No!" Lola said. "Why do you say that?"

"Because some guys knew we were coming," Nick said. "They were ready to blast me and my partner the moment we walked in through the door. Someone must have tipped them off."

"Look, Kang, I know we don't get along," Lola said. "But I swear I don't know shit about this. You may be an asshole to me sometimes, but I don't a death wish for you or anything like that."

"Well, _someone_ must have tipped them off," Nick said and sighed. "Okay, I believe you. You are going to give me some more info soon. I got the cook, by the way. I'm going to get him to play ball. I'll call you later."

The call ended. It was time to head to HQ. Nick and Marcus needed to have a chat with the two men who came to kill them, as well as the leader of the gang and drug cook.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this chapter. I will include an interrogation bit soon. Okay, so now I revealed that the Russians know who Nick is, but how is the real question. I will also have Marcus interrogate Mike, who was one of the soldiers/assassins who tried to take him out in the first chapter.
> 
> A lot of the raid and shootout was inspired by the raid/shootout scene from Point Break and I mean the 1991 version. I didn't want to make it TOO similar, so I made some differences. I also had thought of using the 1988 movie Colors as inspiration for the raid scene, but there wasn't really much of anything happening in that scene. The only thing people remember from that scene was the fact that a naked woman was one of the people arrested. But I may use Colors as inspiration for other scenes. You'll see.
> 
> This is probably the longest chapter I did for this story thus far. Hope you all enjoyed it. Peace out.


	15. Spill Your Guts

It was at that moment that almost all of the people who were at that house where that small drug lab had been taken to the Elite Operations Division headquarters. Nick and Marcus were more than lucky to have survived the ordeal, as some of the people there packed some serious heat. It was a wonder that not only Nick, but that young woman who answered the door managed to survive everything.

But Nick felt that she was one missing piece of the puzzle. Not so much that she ran with the outfit that was holed up in that house, but even with her surviving everything, she probably could have known more than one would think.

What was more important in that moment was what was up with the drug cook. The garage was big enough to have a lab for him to manufacture some drugs, but usually drug labs consisted of a lot more space and more people to cook up the dope. Maybe he was only one small piece of another puzzle? Or maybe that lab was just used for that gang and he had done work for other organizations. Also, who were the guys in that house?

A lot of the people who were there were in the cells, but Nick and Marcus wanted to question the motives of certain members. The two detectives stood there with Chief Parks, Rosie, and Rico, all of whom were on the first floor of headquarters. They stood right next to the staircase that led to the interrogation rooms.

"Looks like you two made quite a bust," Chief said. "But could these be some guys running the drugs on the beaches?"

Nick sighed. "I don't know, chief. But these guys were heated and were ready for us when we get there."

"How did you guys get the information?" Rico said.

"My informant gave us a tip, but that wasn't the bad part," Nick said.

Marcus cut in. "I saw through the window. These guys looked ready for us. They were strapped to the teeth."

Nick continued talking. "This girl answered the door. I tried to play dumb like I was looking for a missing dog and was trying to stall so that Marcus can make his way inside. But one of the guys we brought in, the leader or something, he just opened fire the moment I walked in. He had a huge fucking rifle. It's like these guys were into some heavy shit. But like I said, they were ready for us. It's like someone tipped them off."

"Who the hell tipped them off?" Rosie said. "I know you have made some enemies in this city, Nick, but damn."

"And most of them are either dead or in jail," Nick said.

"But that wasn't all of it, you know, Nick," Marcus said. "Some guy came in and it looked like he was ready to kill either us or the guys there."

Nick looked at Marcus and nodded his head.

"Someone must really have it in for you two," Chief Parks said.

"That's just it, we don't know who it is," Nick said. "That one Russian guy knew my name."

Marcus kept silent, as he had met that guy who tried to smoke him before. He knew who that guy worked for, but despite all of that, he, too, wondered who tipped them off.

Both men had been through a lot of danger and had cheated death by either sheer luck or uncompromising skill, but with the kinds of weapons these men used, they couldn't have been any luckier to be alive at that moment. Who knew if Marcus would have made it if those other cops didn't come in to stop Mike from drive Marcus's face into a mower motor?

"Russian?" Rosie said. Even at that moment, she wondered how that man could have known who Nick was. "Listen, if you got a Russian here, make sure Rico and I aren't around. We don't want to blow our covers here."

"That won't happen," Chief Parks said to two Mexican detectives. "How about you two talk to the leader and the cook?"

A voice from a distance said, "How about you leave the leader and the cook to us while you guys explain the bloodbath that occurred in that house?"

The detectives turned around and once again, Agent Masterson and Agent Sullivan approached all of them with other FBI agents with them.

"Oh shit, not again," Nick said, rolling his eyes and sighing.

"What is it now, Masterson?" Chief Parks said.

"My partner and I, as well as some of my men checked out that house that you two shot up," Masterson said. "It seemed that you had arrested one of my men. One of my girls came to me in a bloody mess, saying that you guys were involved. She told me about that those guys you shot up held a stash of weapons for some Russian gangsters but blew the whole operation all to hell."

Chief Parks sighed, "Don't you think it's time that you tell the LAPD, as well as us what you guys are doing? How are we supposed to be know what's going around here if you have people working your own operations?"

"With all due respect, Parks, my two operatives are new and I only wanted to gain intel on this beach gang," Masterson said. "One of them told me about the drug cook and what he had been cooking. But they could have told me more if your two outlaws here…" He said pointing towards Nick and Marcus. "…Didn't pull their John Wayne or Clint Eastwood stunt on the operation. One of those men you shot was found with a lot of blood and brain matter on the walls, floor, and on one of my agents."

It wasn't long until a familiar-looking young woman walked into the precinct wearing a trench coat, likely covering her bikini that she was wearing earlier. Nick saw her and saw that she had cleaned up some of the blood from her face and hair.

"_She_ is one of your agents?" Nick said.

Agent Sullivan started to speak, "This here is Agent Rachel Caine. She was working undercover with those men you blasted. She told us what happened."

"You could have found another way to take that man down, Kang," Masterson said.

"Well, Masterson and Sullivan," Nick said in a mildly-sarcastic tone. "One of those guys held a gun right to her head and was ready to blow her head off. I wasn't going to let that happen. There was no time to aim at a limb, your agent wouldn't be standing here if I didn't make my move then."

"He's right," Rachel said.

"Those guys were waiting for us," Marcus said, breaking his silence. "They were pulling out a fucking arsenal and we were the only cops present. We made contact with any other units patrolling the area. Someone tipped them off, set us up, whatever."

Once again, Sullivan looked right at Marcus with so much suspicion. What exactly was his problem with Marcus?

"I don't know how you handle things in New York," Sullivan said. "But as a police officer, you should know that there regulations when holding a badge. Just remember that we're both onto you."

"Who do you think you are, I.A.?" Nick said with a touch of derision. "Whatever your case was that we blew to shit, we caught the leader and the cook and some others. So I don't know what we did, but you should be thanking us."

Chief Parks cut in once again. "Masterson, Sullivan, these two barely got out alive. Right now, they need to ask those men a few questions. So why don't you let them do their job…?"

Marcus, Nick, Rosie, and Rico proceeded to find the rooms where the suspects were being held. Before Nick could walk away, Rachel stopped him a bit.

"Wait, Detective Kang," Rachel said. Nick turned towards the young female agent.

"Listen, I want to thank you for saving my life earlier," Rachel said. "I didn't want to blow my cover, but those guys could have killed me."

"Don't worry about it," Nick said. "It goes with the territory in this line of work. But you're welcome. Even if you were just an innocent person or someone connected but wasn't armed, I was not going to let you eat lead. I got to go talk to someone right now."

Rachel nodded her head. It was clear to her that Nick didn't want to think that he was in her debt, but for the two moments when she nearly got shot, to her a huge debt to him was in order.

* * *

Nick and Marcus saw the two men they not only wanted to talk to, but needed to as well. Rosie went to talk with Richard, the drug cook, while Rico went to talk with Bunker, the gang leader.

The two assassins who came to wipe out Nick and Marcus sat in their respective interrogation rooms all by their lonesome.

"So what do you want to do?" Marcus said. "You want me to talk to your guy while you talk to mine?"

However, the interrogation rooms where Oleg and Mike were sitting in with a little farther from where Bunker and Richard were. Nick looked through the one-way windows for their respective interrogation rooms. He noticed cameras set up in both rooms.

"No, but I have an idea," Nick said. "I got a bone to pick with my guy."

"Hey, _I_ got a bone to pick with _my_ guy," Marcus said.

"In what way?" Nick said.

"Let's just say that this ain't the first time we've met," Marcus said. "I'll fill you in later."

Nick and Marcus went forth to talk to their men, but before that, Nick walked through a door and found where the camera and microphone setup for the interrogation rooms.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rosie went into the room where Richard was sitting. He had since taken off the lab coat and safety goggles. He was shown to be a rather scrawny young man. Whether it was because he was using the drugs or just happened to be rather lanky, that's not the matter.

"Well, Richard Tyler," Rosie said. "I have gone over your record. You seem to be mostly clean, except for maybe some trouble with traffic violations and driving while intoxicated. But as for what my colleague had found, it appears that you have been cooking up drugs."

Richard sat there in silence.

"It also said that you are a graduate of USC with a Masters in chemistry and biology," Rosie said. "You were going to try to go for a PhD in medicine and maybe go for a doctorate, but you were then kicked out of school when you went to class as high as a kite. I'm surprised you didn't get arrested for drug possession."

Richard said, "I only had taken some speed and snorted just one line one night when I was out partying. I was so fucked up that I couldn't do anything one day."

"You seemed to do more if your work ethic had taken a major crumble and got kicked out of university," Rosie said. "You seemed to have quite the work ethic if you had gotten your Masters at 21 or 22. You seem like quite the genius if you got a full-ride to USC but you threw it all away and now you're cooking illegal drugs."

"Your point being?" Richard said.

"So because you fucked up your career chances for some stupid shit you got into, now the only thing you got is cooking some narcotics, which is even worse than what you were doing before," Rosie said.

Rosie saw that this guy was rather geeky. Not the stereotypical geek because for some reason he was hanging around some criminals and when Nick and Marcus had gotten back to headquarters, they surmised that some partying occurred the night before, along with some tawdry encounters. She had looked up this guy as he had been the class valedictorian in his high school, enough that he got an academic scholarship to University of Southern California, even though it seemed that he came from a well-off upbringing. But even with a Masters degree, he could have done more, but something probably corrupted him to get kicked out and go to the dark side.

"So what is your connection with these guys and why are you cooking drugs?" Rosie said. "Do they pay you in girls or anything like that?"

"You must really think that I am that much of a geek that I can't get pussy, don't you?" Richard said.

"I'm just making conversation," Rosie said. "I'm not saying that you can't get laid because whether you do or don't, that's not important. What I want to know is why you're cooking up these drugs and what is it that led you to associate with these criminals. From what I understand, this designer drug that you're cooking up is hot on the streets right now."

Richard saw that she wasn't messing around. Even though Rosie went down the wrong path before becoming a cop, when she looked at this guy's record among other things, she saw that this guy likely threw away all of his potential.

"Okay, you really want to know, huh? I will tell you, I will tell you everything I know," Richard said as he faced her dead in the eye. Though he saw that she was attractive, he knew that she was onto him because the things she said struck a nerve.

"My connection with those guys is through that guy Bunker," Richard said. "After I got kicked out of school, my parents cut me off for the shit that I went through, so I had to find a way to make money. Yes, I had a full-ride scholarship, but that was only up until I got my Bachelors. My father paid for my tuition for my Masters program. But one time I started partying with Bunker, who was connected with some fraternity, but he managed to score some coke and other shit for the parties. One time he was running low, but being that he knew that I have degrees in science, there was one time he got me to cook up some pills. He got into some shit with campus police for drug possession and got kicked out. But his parents bailed him a lot, but he decided he needed to make some money of his own. He turned to me to cook up some stuff because he needed some money, too.

Rosie had a look of intrigue on her face. Was this guy Bunker using him all along? It was amazing to her that he would sell out his seeming partner-in-crime.

"I'm surprised you're snitching out your compadre like this," Rosie said.

It seemed that the things she said struck a nerve with him enough to start talking.

"I am only telling you what my connection is with him, not so much what went down," Richard said.

"Oh?" Rosie said. It turned out she misunderstood.

"You said for me to tell you what my link to Bunker was," Richard said. "But if you really want to know more, here it goes: All I know is that some Russian guys came to him and his crew to hold onto some weapons, but that's all I know. For that, they had me make some Pop so that they could distribute it around the clubs and the beach. I am only a cook for them. I try not to get involved in the shit that they're in. Shit, after what happened earlier, I'm surprised the house didn't get blown up."

"According to my partners, your lab is pretty small," Rosie said.

"I only cook for them on occasion," Richard said. "Besides, I'm all they need."

Something about this guy just didn't sit right with Rosie. If those guys were dealing drugs that this guy was cooking, then they would need more people involved, as well as more room. Maybe there were other guys involved but weren't there when Nick and Marcus busted them. She even wondered if maybe there were other labs involved.

"Okay, what's with the Russians?" Rosie said.

"You'll have to talk to Bunker about that," Richard said. "Like I said, I only cook for them. The Russians are pretty serious from what I understand."

Rosie looked at him. Even though she messed with him a bit, it didn't seem like there was anything he was hiding. All he told her was his connection and that he was a cook for that gang.

Rosie said, "Well, the only thing I could say is that Bunker must be a good friend to you. You must be in that lab for hours on end, even with gunshots going off in the next room. He must rely on you so much to cook drugs for him. I am sure you're not the only one who has cooking for him. He must make enough to afford the kind of guns he used to nearly call my partners out there. We're done here, at least for now."

Richard looked at her with so much shock on his face. Was she right? Could Bunker have been using him the whole time? What was he getting out of the whole deal?

* * *

Rico went into the interrogation room. Bunker sat there with a smug look mixed with an expression of "How long will this be?" He just wanted to get out of there.

"Hello, Bunker," Rico said. "Bunker Weiss, is it?"

"What's it to you?" Bunker said.

"Well, I can only think of someone named Weiss from around here," Rico said. "If I am not mistaken, Jeffrey Weiss might be your father, as in District Attorney Jeffrey Weiss?"

A smile rose on Bunker's face. It was a devilish smile, like not only did he see that Rico was onto him, but he didn't care, because it only seemed that he would get bailed out anyway.

"What do you mean by that, es-ay?" Bunker said. "A vato like you certainly knows his shit. I'm surprised a vato like you became a pig, es-ay."

Rico looked at him with a bit of annoyance than anger. He knew what he was trying to say, but he was not about to let that bother him.

"You see my tattoos and all that, but don't let them fool you," Rico said. "I know your kind out there."

"You don't know shit about me," Bunker said.

"Oh really?" Rico said. "You think that just because you're just some trust-fund baby and who your father is, you think you got the world in your hands and are untouchable. I guess it would help matters for you because he is running for Attorney General and that would make you untouchable, especially with the stuff I had read but you got off."

Rico closed in towards the suspect. "Tell me I'm wrong."

A scowl rose on Bunker's face in that moment. "What do you want from me? I am not saying shit." Bunker said.

"Oh, so you're going to play that game, huh?" Rico said. "Well let me tell you something. Do you think that your old man will bail you out this time if he finds out that you not only are supplying and distributing drugs, as well as having a guy cook up the shit for you? Do you really think that your old man will just let you get a slap on the wrist for almost killing a cop and an FBI agent?"

"Wait, FBI agent?" Bunker said. "Who the fuck is a fed?"

"Not important, ese," Rico said. The way he said "ese" sounded genuine yet also in a mocking fashion.

"You cops really like to fuck with people, don't you?" Bunker said.

"We just try to uphold the law, but it's assholes like you that piss me off," Rico said. "You think that you can just walk around and do what you want because of who your dad is. But I really wonder what your old man will say when he finds out that you held illegal arms, illegal drugs, shot at cops, and put others in danger because of what was in the garage. It's going to take _a lot_ more than just bailing someone out for all of those crimes. You're looking at quite a sentence here."

"Fuck you," Bunker said. "You're not a lawyer. You know what, I don't need this."

Bunker got up and limped towards the door after that gunshot to the leg he suffered at the hands of Nick.

"Good luck trying to explain to your old man everything when we found some evidence at the house," Rico said. "Including those arms that the feds seized, and I'm not just talking about the guns you and your dead amigos used on the two detectives."

Bunker froze and slowly turned towards the man.

"Also, what is your deal with the Russians?" Rico said.

Bunker paused. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The way he said it was in such a fashion that he may have been a bit scared. It seemed that Rico had found his weak point. But that didn't matter to Bunker, as he left the room. He felt that he was going to be let off anyway, that's if the Russians or others don't get to him first.

Rico just knew that he was in too deep right then. He should know, because he had a gang background and saw that some of his old friends had gotten in too deep and paid the price for it.

* * *

Nick entered the interrogation room. The camera and microphone had been disabled. He did the same for Marcus, but he needed it more. With this Russian assassin having addressed him by his name, he wondered how he knew. Could this man have any connection with a past adversary?

"Oleg Ivanov," Nick said. "Now I know _your_ name. The question is…how you know mine?"

"What is this?" Oleg said with annoyance in his voice. "Is this a guessing game or something?"

"No, I just want to know how you know my name and who wants me dead," Nick said. "For you to call me Nick Kang Wilson, that just shows you know from somewhere. You see I have dealt with the Russians before, except the person who was in charge is dead. He died from a plane crash that just occurred before he could get off the tarmac. Someone must be ordering my death from beyond the grave or even from the depths of Hell. Or maybe the guy you're working for must be trying to take his place. After all, I heard that the Gulag is up and running again. Someone must _really_ want me dead."

Oleg laughed at what Nick just said. "Is it _that_ obvious?"

"Don't fucking play games with me," Nick said. "I know I have made my share of enemies, but either they're dead or they're in jail. You don't want to fuck with a cop like me."

"Is that a fact?" Oleg said. "I heard my share of stories about you, but your reputation doesn't do you justice."

"Want a bet?" Nick said. He pushed the table out of the way and then pushed Oleg while he was in the chair. Right when he hit the floor, Nick went and picked him up off the floor and pushed him against the wall. With the camera and microphone disabled, nobody knew what was happening at that moment except for Nick and Oleg.

"You see, Oleg, I'm not stupid," Nick said. "If you really think that more of your guys will take me out, I'll be ready. I already dealt with one of your fellow guys on the streets, as well as in someone's house. That person who I know that a couple of your fellow soldiers were sent to kill maybe this drug addict who may or may not owe you money. One of them is dead. I have dealt with a lot of scum from when I was just a uni to when I became a detective. You name it, I've dealt with them. Street gang members, organized crime, even just lowly drug dealers and robbers and carjackers. Some tried to act all hard but they just couldn't hack it. So I'm going to ask you one more time, who sent you to kill me?"

"I'm not saying shit, cop," Oleg said.

"Wrong answer," Nick said. He turned Oleg's body as his back was now facing Nick, who grabbed the Russian gangster by the head and rammed it towards the wall and pressed it against it.

"Who is it?" Nick said in an aggressive tone.

"I'm not saying who it is," Oleg said.

For that, Nick grabbed Oleg's right hand and gripped his index finger and continued to press Oleg's head against the wall and ran it from right to left.

"You know, if I break this finger, either you're going to have to learn to use your left trigger finger or you won't be able to shoot people ever again," Nick said. "What's it going to be?"

"FINE, I'LL TALK!" Oleg yelled.

Oleg took a deep breath. This wasn't just an interrogation. Nick could have asked about the criminal operation, but this whole thing became personal when Oleg addressed Nick by his full name. Nick had an idea, but he had to know for sure.

"You want to know, huh?" Oleg said. "The man I'm working for is called Vlad. He knows about you. He wants you dead. He's also the man who is dealing the drugs. I was also sent to kill that guy because he hadn't paid Vlad in time."

"Does this 'Vlad' have a last name?" Nick said.

"His full name is Vladimir Kuznetsov," Oleg said. "He is the son of the late Rasputin Kuznetsov. Does that name mean anything to you?"

It was right at that moment that Nick's eyes widened the moment he heard the name Rasputin Kuznetsov. The name rang a bell alright.

"As in Rocky, the same Rocky who ran the Gulag and the counterfeiting and laundering operation?" Nick said.

"The very same," Oleg said.

How convenient it was for the Russians to have some connection to Nick's past adversary, the same man who killed his father all those years ago. To top it all off, the man was Rocky's son. Now Nick figured out why this man seemed young, at least according to Rosie and Rico.

"Thank you so much," Nick said in a stern tone, followed by letting Oleg go and pushing him to the ground once again. Nick got what he wanted and for that, he left the interrogation room.

* * *

After Marcus had entered the interrogation room where Mike was in, he gave him the death stare. After his two run-ins with this man, can anybody blame him? Mike and his partner Ron tried to kill Marcus in his own home in Manhattan. Then Mike tried to gun him down in that house earlier that same day.

Marcus knew that Nick had disabled the camera and microphone, so it was open season for Marcus.

"Michael Virgil, oh, we got to stop meeting like this," Marcus said.

"You know my full name, that's…," Mike said with a bit of sarcasm and paused. "Good." The sarcasm wasn't done right there.

"Cut the bullshit, Mike," Marcus said. "I know who you work for and I know you were sent to kill me if those assholes didn't try to kill me first. I know you were ready to cut my face open with the lawnmower."

Mike sat there all quietly.

"I just want to say this, whoever Bobby sends after me, I will be ready, because I am ready for him," Marcus said. "If he wants to kill me himself, I am not too far."

Mike had a look of shock on his face when he mentioned the Bobby. The first time those two had met, Marcus had no idea who Mike worked for.

"How do you know who I work for?" Mike said.

"Let's just say a little bird told me," Marcus said. "So I was right, huh? But there's more to it than that. I came here because that little bird told me he is here. Yes, I am working on the case involving Pop, which I also heard you guys are selling. But if you and that one guy came to kill me, I want to know what Bobby's plan was all along."

Mike chuckled at that. "You got a death wish? You're fucking with the wrong guy."

"Am I? I wouldn't be standing here right in front of you right now if you and that guy Ron had smoked me that night," Marcus said. "Lucky for me, a personal friend of mine told me what was up. That's why I was ready, just like how those assholes were ready to smoke my ass and my partner when we came by. Why does Bobby Green want me dead so bad? I am not into that shit anymore."

"Look, all I know is that he got beef with yo ass," Mike said. "He told me and all the boys once about how you busted his brother and killed his pops."

"That's where you're wrong, dog," Marcus said. "I busted his brother because he was too much of a dumbass wannabe thug. He wanted to be like his brother, but he can't. I busted his ass because he couldn't play it smart. As for his pops, I didn't have shit to do with that. I was already out of the gang life. So whoever smoked his old man that was one of my pops' boys. He's still in the life, even though he's locked up."

"Whatever, man, Robert wants to make sure all of the King's Posse is gone, even you," Mike said.

"Like I said, I'm not into that shit anymore," Marcus said. "But I will tell you this. Me and Bobby, we got a long history together. I'm just going to tell you right now, you try to sell your boys out or even Bobby or Robert, whatever the fuck he calls himself now, you better hope he lets you live, because Bobby Green, he doesn't fuck around with anybody. I even know that he's killed his own boys because they failed him."

"Am I supposed to tell you anything more?" Mike said.

"No, but I just want you to tell him that I'll be coming for him, if he lets you live, that is," Marcus said. "If he wants to take me out, he better do it himself, because I didn't expect him to come after me after years of not dealing with him."

Marcus paused for a bit.

"By the way, how is it that you guys started selling Pop when I took down the Presidents Club last year?" Marcus said.

"I'm not the right person to talk to," Mike said. "You might want to talk to A.K. about that."

A smile rose on Marcus's face in that moment. Even though he was unsuccessful in taking Marcus down, Mike had just shown that he might be able to sell out his fellow gang members after all.

"I never said asked how or who to talk to," Marcus said. "A.K., huh? Is he still Bobby's right-hand man? I know Bobby is crazy, but if you're selling out your homeboys like this, it won't just be Bobby who fuck you up, but A.K., I know that motherfucker don't fuck around."

Instead of being fazed by this, Mike just seemed bored by all of this.

"All I want to know is where to find Bobby," Marcus said.

"I'm not telling you shit," Mike said.

"You told me other stuff," Marcus said.

Mike was at a loss. Marcus saw that this guy either wasn't that smart or was easy to trap.

"You better know one thing, Reed," Mike said. "If Bobby finds out about this, he is going to send some of his guys after you and that other cop you're partnered with."

"Oh yeah? What you should tell him is that he should try to handle his own problems all by himself," Marcus said. "Like I said, I'll be ready for him. I know him really well."

"Yeah, but what about your old man?" Mike said. "Did you ever think that your pops is that safe on the inside? Yeah, I heard that he's got his own special cell in the middle of the city and not on Rikers, but Bobby could probably get one of his own guys that are still in New York to shank your old man or some shit. You see, Bobby has come a long way since the thug he was during your time as a member of the King's Posse. Robert has told me all about you. He's told everyone all about you. I know you said you'll be ready, but the real person who should be watching his back is you and your pops. The King's Posse is done. The OGF, we're taking over NYC and we're getting the Russians to have ours backs out here."

For that, Marcus rushed towards Mike and picked him up out of the chair and pushed him against the wall and delivered a couple of punches to the gut, but Mike didn't go without trying to defend himself by delivering a few punches to Marcus's gut as well. But Marcus rushed towards him and pushed him right against the wall.

"You don't know shit about me, fool," Marcus said. "I'm watching my back already. But you better tell Bobby everything I said."

"Or else what?" Mike said.

"Or else I'm going to make sure he knows that you nearly sold out your boys, and believe me, you _don't_ want to do that," Marcus said.

Mike nodded his head. It was time for him to try to play ball with Marcus now.

* * *

A few minutes had passed, all of the detectives had reported to Parks, as well as Masterson and Sullivan, who was still looking at Marcus and just then, he saw Mike leaving the interrogation room. The man seemed a bit familiar to him, but how?

Rosie, Rico, Nick, and Marcus all told the chief and the feds what the suspects had told them. Rachel stood by and realized that there were more than just the Russians who those guys she went undercover against were working with.

"Well, I got to go get my other agent out of there," Agent Masterson said. "Come on, Sullivan."

Masterson and Sullivan went to the holding cells to go get their other agent. It turned out that the agent was the same guy who Marcus saw through the window and was naked with the woman. As he left, the woman he was with had a look of shock, but for all she knew, she was probably shocked that he may be in trouble with them, as opposed to working undercover with them.

He had come back with the feds, who had introduced him as Agent Juan Aguilar. Marcus and Nick saw that he didn't join in on the shootout. It turned out at that moment, they had more support after all.

"Okay, Masterson, I hope we've reached an understand," Parks said. "If you have any other operations going on, please keep me informed."

"We will, Parks," Masterson said. "We will talk soon."

After the feds left, Marcus realized that he needed to do something.

"Hey, I got to go make a couple of calls, I'll be back," Marcus said.

He walked outside at the front entrance of the precinct. He wondered who he should call first. Should he call Dixon? Or should he call his father? Which was more important? It seemed that after what he just went through, something was more at stake. He'll make the other call afterwards.

He made the call and waited for it to go through.

"Hello?" A male voice said.

"Hey, Pop, it's Marcus," he said.

"Marcus, my boy, how's it going in LA?" Isaiah said.

"It's going alright, but I need to know something," Marcus said. "How safe are you in the prison you're in?"

"What's going on?" Isaiah said.

"I got one of Bobby Green's boys to talk, well to some extent," Marcus said. "No time to explain, but I hope you got your boys out on the streets watching their backs. It seems that Bobby, excuse me, Robert Green, as how that guy put it, is trying to take out all of the King's Posse."

"What do you take me for, Marcus?" Isaiah said. "You know damn well that just because I'm locked up that doesn't mean that I don't have power in the streets. I'm already ahead of you. I also got protection in here. So I ain't got to worry if anybody tries to shank me in here."

"I know that, Pop, but still," Marcus said. "I'm just trying to look out for you."

"I know that, but you don't have to worry about me," Isaiah said. "I'll be in touch."

"Got it, talk to you later," Marcus said.

After the call ended, Marcus remembered that he had to call another person. He made the call and waited for it to go through.

"Hello?" A female voice said.

"Hello, Dixon," Marcus said.

"Marcus, I thought I wasn't going to hear from you for a bit, what's up?" Dixon said. "There's something I got to tell you."

"Okay, tell me what you know," Marcus said. "And I'll tell you what I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought I'd leave it on a cliffhanger. I'll do more with the plot in the next one, especially the subplots, like Rosie going undercover, Vivian's involvement, and the Yakuza story. I haven't forgotten about them. Even then, they're all connected to a point.
> 
> Yes, I finally revealed who the Russian leader is. I also felt liked I needed to have Rosie and Rico take part in the story. I forgot to mention this before, but Rico is sort of inspired by the character of Alex Cruz from the Lethal Weapon TV show. He was played by Richard Cabral.
> 
> I also brought back old Nick. He made a few wisecracks, as well as got violent. He did the same in the previous chapter. The thing with this story is that I'm trying to have it be like the first two Lethal Weapon films in that both co-protagonists have their own villains but are connected to the story as a whole.


	16. Piece by Piece

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be mostly interludes done in different perspectives. I have done something like this before in another story.

"What did you find out, Marcus?" Lt. Deena Dixon remained on the line while she talked to Marcus on the phone.

Marcus stood outside the EOD headquarters. He had to be away from his team for this discussion.

"Well, I heard that the Original Gangster Family is out here in L.A. working with the Russian mob on some kind of deal," Marcus said.

"What kind of deal?" Dixon said.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Marcus said. "It seems like the Russians have some kind of influence out here, but two detectives that my partner and I are working with, they think that the head is in over his head. I can only guess that the OGF is providing them with the drugs."

"And what exactly are the OGF getting out of the deal?" Dixon said.

"That's what we're about to find out," Marcus said.

"Well, Marcus, I got something to tell you," Dixon said as she sat at her desk. "Recently, I went with Agent Whitting and Victor to Rikers Island to talk to Lionel Jones, the former head of Zen Empire Records. He said that at some point, his gang planned to work with OGF. If I recall, wasn't the OGF rivals with your father's gang?"

"What are you getting at?" Marcus said.

"I have a feeling that they might be the ones who had something to do with that attempt on your life," Dixon said. "I know that you handle things your way sometimes, but don't you think that you should come back if they are over there? They might find out and, well, you know."

Marcus stood there in a quick bit of silence after hearing his superior speak. Dixon had a point. She knew that Marcus had his own method of bringing down criminals. She was well aware that Marcus was a former gang member before becoming a cop. It was possible that Marcus's arch-nemesis will soon find out about his presence on the West Coast. But unbeknownst to Dixon, Marcus knew from a nameless source.

"Dixon, I will be fine, but I am in the middle of the case and I will crack it soon," Marcus said. "Besides, Whitting told me that he will be looking into some of the trouble occurring out there. Maybe Victor could send some of his OCU guys to investigate. I am sure that some of the OGF are still out there."

"I am just a little concerned, that's all," Dixon said. "Listen, if you find anything, keep me posted. Like you said, Victor will look into this whole thing surrounding the OGF. Be careful out there, okay?"

"I will, I'll be in touch," Marcus said.

Right after he got off the phone, he started to see that Dixon was genuinely concerned. Though she knew that Marcus could take care of himself, the fact that he was almost murdered in his own home showed that he might be in more danger than he may think. But Marcus had plans of his own. Though he wanted to bring down the crime operation, it seemed that his own agenda was what really mattered.

At the same time, however, he felt a little uneasy for mildly deceiving his superior. He went to Los Angeles knowing that the OGF would be out there for him to confront. He respected Dixon as his superior, but he didn't forget that he bended the law a few times even as detective, which was one of his flaws as he never truly forgot his criminal past. One example could be that he did favors for his father at times, as well as Freddie the cabbie, and also a madam named Cassandra Hartz. It wasn't unlike Marcus to bend the law a few times, but for the most part, he tried to remain on the right side of the law.

On top of that, his own personal informant, Vivian Shen had given him dirt on a drug deal in Chinatown. Why was she doing this? Her boyfriend may have been a drug pusher while being a street racer, but something told Marcus that she wanted him to bring down Han's friends for some reason. Something didn't add up about this.

It was time to go back inside to meet with his team, particularly his partner Nick. Who knows what the day had in store?

* * *

Inside the EOD headquarters, Nick talked with Rosie, Rico, and Chief Parks about the guys he and Nick brought in. Rosie filled her two fellow detectives, as well as Chief Parks about that guy Richard Tyler, who was cooking drugs for that beach gang, and likely also for the Russians. Rico also filled them in on Bunker Weiss.

"Bunker Weiss? Is he the son of Jeffrey Weiss?" Nick said.

"The very same," Rico said. "He thinks he is getting off because of who his daddy is, but I would think that he is facing some heavy time for all of this."

"It's not up to us," Rosie said. "I've seen some guys who raped girls get off scot free because of some technicality bullshit, while others who didn't do anything got five years. It's always because the person was there at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I wouldn't say that, Rosie," Nick cut in. "This guy shot at me, he shot at that undercover fed. On top of that, he was sitting on some drugs and guns. But the moment I saw that Russian hitman pointing a gun at him, I knew that he was getting in too deep."

Rico added, "You should have seen him when I mentioned the Russians. He was scared shitless, like he knew that he messed up."

Chief Parks added, "So do you think that the arms were for some special deal?"

Nick added, "Well, from what we've gathered so far, it seems that this Russian outfit might be new to the drug game. But maybe it isn't just drugs that they are dealing. Maybe those guns that were seized for some arms deal that the Russians were dealing."

"But it seemed like a small load, Nick," Rosie said. "If you're dealing in arms, it usually means that there has to be load to support an army or something. Most of the time, arms dealers will just sell weapons in case someone needs to pack a heat, but that load? There's got to be more to it."

"Maybe it isn't just those guys we busted," a male voice said from a distance. It was Marcus.

"I have seen my share of arms dealers," Marcus said. "Some of the time they will have other crews sit on the arms, as long as they keep it secure."

"But what does this have to do with the case?" Chief Parks said. "Our case is mostly about the drugs, but now we're moving into arms trafficking."

"Maybe there is a deal for both," Nick said. "Like someone deals the drugs out here and maybe the weapons are for the other end of the bargain."

"But who could it be?" Rosie said.

"Those guns don't seem like they could support that whole gang on the beach," Rico said.

"Well, we'll have to go see for ourselves," Nick said. "I know a few arms dealers. Maybe Francis might know something."

"Don't tell me we're going back to that same place again out in Santa Monica," Marcus said. "You already tried to shake down the former drug cook over there."

"Since you mention that, I think we should try to get in touch with the feds who were working undercover with the beach gang," Nick said. "While also seeing if Jojo may know about the drug. Something tells me he might know about this crew."

"That's what I'm talking about, Nick," Chief Parks said. "You always have a clear idea on what goes on."

"Right, Chief," Nick said and looked towards Marcus. "Come on, Marcus, let's go check this out."

Rosie stood up from the chair. "While you guys handle your stuff, Rico and I need to prepare for tonight. We need to meet with that guy Pete at the Body Fantastique to see if he can lead us to any suppliers of the drugs. We just need to bring the money and then we'll handle it from there."

Rosie realized that when they were talking, it seemed that she was right from before. This Russian mob boss seemed a little new to the drug game. Maybe this could be a sign of weakness to help bring them down a bit.

"We'll be in touch," Nick said.

As soon as Nick and Marcus left the headquarters and went into the garage, Nick this time decided to take a different car this time. He saw the silver and blue muscle car that he seized from that race. It was time to scope out the city.

After Marcus got into the passenger's seat in the car, he stared off into the distance, as he wondered what he should do later on that day. He wondered how he should handle Han's friends in Chinatown.

"Something wrong, Marcus?" Nick said.

"Just got something on my mind," Marcus said. "That girl Vivian, you know your brother's student? Well, she gave me a tip about these guys dealing Pop out in Chinatown. She said it's her boyfriend's crew."

"Are they triads or tong?" Nick said. "Also, why is she helping you?"

"She owes me a lot," Marcus said. "She said that her boyfriend has been dealing Pop on the side and that she got that shiner from an associate of her boyfriend's. I'm trying to get in on this to see who's been supplying them as well."

"Well, if you're going out to Chinatown, you'll need my help," Nick said. "That place is crawling with triads. You don't want to mess with them. By the way, why did you agree to do this?"

"Like I said, she is returning the favor," Marcus said.

Nick scoffed and sighed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but are you sweet on this girl? I don't know why I'm asking because I haven't met her, but it sounds like you're sweet on her."

"Why do you say that?" Marcus said.

"You have a picture of her and you went to the race that one night," Nick said. "You even went to talk to her yourself."

"That picture was given to me by her when she sent me a letter," Marcus said. "I was just trying to get some info out of her."

"Sure…," Nick said with a touch of sarcasm. "Look, I'm not blind. If you're doing a favor for her, that's fine. But it seems like there is more to it. Didn't you say that she was tong in New York?"

"She wasn't, but her father was, as well as her stepbrother," Marcus said.

"Look, it's not my business, but watch yourself out there," Nick said. "If you're sweet on this girl, that's fine, but if she was connected to the tong, you better make sure that she's completely away from all that shit."

"I will," Marcus said.

RING! RING! RING! Nick's cellphone started ringing.

"Hold on, I got to take this," Nick said and answered the call. "Hello?"

"Hello, Detective Kang?" A female voice said. "This is Tina Ferguson. We met at the bank and I was Ray's girlfriend."

"Tina, I didn't expect you to call," Nick said. "Have you heard from Ray?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Tina said. "I called Ray last night to see what's going on with him. He said that he'll try to meet up with me to let me know something. But I haven't heard from him all day. I'm getting worried."

"Has he been to your house?" Nick said.

"No, he is trying to lay low," Tina said. "He's staying at a motel to make sure no one finds him. He called me on the motel room's phone, but he'll make a quick call on his cellphone to let me know something. But he hasn't called me all day. I tried to call the motel room but there was no answer. Can you check it out?"

"I'll see what I can do," Nick said. "My partner and I are going to handle something right now. Just give me the name of the motel and we'll probably check it out."

Tina told him it was a Best Western somewhere close to Venice.

"Please call me when you find something, okay?" Tina said.

"I will," Nick said and hung up.

"Was that the same girl from the bank?" Marcus said.

"Yeah, she's worried about her boyfriend," Nick said. "You know, now that I think about it, there must be more to this."

"Really? What's that?" Marcus said.

Nick said, "You see, these Russians, it seems that they are running things around here, but one of the guys who took part in an armed robbery that I took down, he seemed like an addict. But when we scoped out the house the other day, those Russians were clearly there to kill him. These guys seem to hold power in various parts of the city. Something tells me that they got even some street gangs like Bloods or even the Mexican gangs out there, if there is a price for it."

"What makes you so sure?" Marcus said.

"You don't just have a low-level gang that runs things on the beaches of LA and get them involved in something major," Nick said. "The thing I wonder is if the triads in Chinatown have anything to do with this."

Nick paused a bit. "Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself."

"Well, one of the guys that I busted, he seems like he was connected to that New York gang that's out here," Marcus said. "We have to really keep looking."

"Right, but right now, we really need to meet up with those feds," Nick said. "They were working undercover. So they may know something. We should also check out that tire place again and see if Jojo knows that guy Richard Tyler."

Marcus nodded his head. Nick started up the car and they were on their way.

* * *

**Elsewhere, later that day**

Inside a building somewhere, it seemed that the OGF had set up shop for their operation. They weren't going to be there that long, so the Russians had them set up in a small warehouse with crates and other junk.

Bobby Green, along with his primary associates, A.K. and Big Tank, as well as Tre and Ron, had since picked up Mike from the police station. Bobby did not look the least bit pleased. Not just because Mike got arrested, but he also didn't get the job done. But it couldn't _just_ be that, could it?

Mike lied on the floor, bloodied and bruised. Standing before him was Big Tank, Bobby's primary muscle for the crew, maybe even one of the primary enforcers for the OGF in general. Mike looked like he had gotten beaten pretty badly.

"How could you fuck up killing this man twice?" Bobby said as he walked up to the center of the torture. "You fucked up killing him at his house. You failed at it a second time. All you needed to do was put a fucking bullet in his dome and he would be done."

Mike lied there breathing hard. "Can you just let me explain? You really need to know this."

"I don't need to know," Bobby said.

"Yes," Mike said as he paused to let himself breathe a bit. "You do."

A.K. walked up beside Bobby. "Hey, B.G., you want me to handle him next?"

"Not yet, we need to let him speak," Bobby said. "And don't call me B.G. Call me R.G. from now on."

"Whatever, Bobby," A.K. said.

Bobby slowly got closer to Mike as he was slowly trying to get up.

"What do you got to say?" Bobby said.

"You see, he's onto you, he's onto all of us," Mike said. "You see, someone told him that you sent me and Ron to smoke him that one night. You already know that he was ready for both of us because someone tipped him off. But what happened today, he told me that he knew that you were coming out here and was coming for you. He already knew that you was here and he said that he'll be ready if any of our boys try to gun for him. He's helping some cop out here on the case of Pop, but the reason is because he wants to take you out."

Just then, a look of mild concern rose on Bobby's face. It now became clear to him that Marcus Reed wanted to settle the score between them. While someone had told Bobby that Marcus was in town, Bobby didn't know ahead of time that Marcus was mainly in town to go after him.

"So he knew, huh?" Bobby said. "I just wonder _how_ he knew. Who ratted us out to him, huh? Was it you?"

"I didn't say shit," Mike said while standing and had his hands in some parts of his body that were in pain. "I don't know who sold us out. Don't underestimate this guy, he was already onto us that night at his place. He was onto me today. He's good."

"Tell me something I _don't_ know, nigga," Bobby said.

"One more thing," Mike said. "He said that if you want to take him out so badly, you should do it yourself."

"Is that right?" Bobby said. "So he wants me to take him out myself? Does he think I'm a fucking pussy that I won't get my hands dirty?"

"He didn't say that," Mike said. "But it sure seemed like it. He even said that he knows that we are selling Pop. That ain't the same as ratting you out and you know it."

Bobby had a look of intrigue on his face. It was like he knew that he shouldn't have underestimated him to begin with. Hell, when he was informed that Marcus was in town, he should have known that it was more than just helping out on loan from the PDNY.

"You know, I got to hand it to you," Bobby said. "I know that if you fucking sold me out, you'd be as good as dead. So I'm not going to kill you."

Bobby paused a bit and signaled to A.K. and Big Tank, as well as some other associates, as they all walked into the pit of torture.

"But you still failed to kill him like I told you to," Bobby said.

A.K. and Big Tank picked him up off his feet. They saw a table nearby. They dragged him to that table and placed his right hand flat on it. Bobby got closer and got out a knife.

"Just remember that if you fucked me over in any other way, you would either be dead or fucked up badly," Bobby said. "This wasn't completely your fault, but still, I have to teach you a lesson."

Mike trembled and sweated at what was about to happen. His back was to Bobby, who had the knife in hand. Mike's hand was flat on the table, with Big Tank and A.K. holding him down to make sure he doesn't move. Bobby raised the knife in a downward position. He swung it downward it a stabbing and punctured it right through Mike's right hand.

"AAAAAGGGHH! FUCK!" Mike yelled.

But Bobby wasn't done. He got the knife out from Mike's hand, much to Mike's discomfort. This time, Bobby held the blade in a different position, like the alloy was pointed forward with the sharp side facing downward, like if he was to slice food.

Bobby went right for Mike's right pinky finger and the finger right next to it and put the sharp end on both fingers and started slicing through them like he was slicing food. Once again, Mike screamed loudly at the pain that was being inflicted on him. He sliced through until the fingers separated from his hand.

Mike fell backwards and gripped his right hand with his left. Blood ran down from the wound from the center as well as his severed fingers.

"You're lucky you can shoot with your left hand," Bobby said. "Next time, I'll send you and some others to take him. But I'll decide if I want you guys to kill him or bring him to me."

Mike breathed hard from all the pain and looked at his boss directly in the eye with a scowl on his face.

"Hold on, Rob," A.K. said. "There's another cop he is teaming up with. What should we do about him?"

"We'll see," Bobby said. "Either we should take him out or the Russians should do it. It seems Vlad's got major beef with the Asian cop."

"I'm sure he won't mind if we take him out," A.K. said. "After all, we would be doing him a favor."

"You got a point," Bobby said. "We need to handle our business first, though."

* * *

**Elsewhere**

Inside a mansion somewhere in Los Angeles, Vlad was sitting inside a mansion. He was in the office. In other parts of the mansion there was some sadomasochistic stuff going on. It was like that when Vlad's father used to live there. It appeared that Vlad had that same interest, but other parts were filled with Russian mob soldiers handling their own business.

"What do you mean he got arrested?" Vlad said as he talked on the phone in his office. "Someone should bail him out soon. I'll give him a piece of my mind for not killing Nick Kang. He killed my father, you know that."

Vlad paused a bit while the person on the other end continued to talk. Who was he talking to?

"Look, Andrei, if he told that cop anything, we'll handle it," Vlad said. "Look, we'll both handle it, or I'll do it my way. Right now, go and take care of our other problems. You know what I'm talking about. That drug addict and those surfer guys. Get Robert Green's men to do it as well. We are losing some money in this whole thing. We can't let those guys go to the cops and tell them what we're doing. We have some loose ends. I know that cop is onto us. Take him out or bring him somewhere and handle him whatever way you want to do it. But I want to be there when it happens. Listen, I'm expecting someone. Call me when you find something. Bye."

Vlad put the phone while he sat at his desk. It was obvious that he was less than thrilled how everything had been going. He had sent a man to take out an associate who may or may not had screwed him over, as well as a detective who probably had something to do with his father's death. Ever since he took over the Russian mob after his father's demise, it became a lot harder than he realized. No one said that running a criminal organization was easy, which was why he had some help involved. Not just his own associates, but also familial connections.

BUZZ! The sound went off on a speaker on his desk.

"Hello, Vlad, you got a visitor here," a voice said through the speaker. "The person's named Dimitri."

"Send him in," Vlad said.

It wasn't long until the person had come into the office accompanied by a fellow mob soldier, as well as a scantily-clad woman who likely was found coming out of the S&M area. The man was older, but he clearly carried himself with a lot of confidence and was rather calm, unlike how Vlad was in that moment.

"Uncle Dimitri, how great it is to see you," Vlad said.

["Vladimir, hello, it's been quite a long time,"] Dimitri said.

["No need to talk in our mother tongue, Uncle Dimitri,"] Vlad said. ["You can speak English, so let's talk in English."]

"Okay," Dimitri said. "We'll talk in this language, though really, you grew up in these parts, so it's only natural that you'll talk in English. Hell, your father spoke it more after coming out here."

"Enough of the language talk, I just want to know what happened to some of the weapons we're supposed to sell to the Original Gangster Family," Vlad said. "Seems that some cops took some of the weapons that those surfer assholes were holding onto. One of those guys was cooking the drug on the streets."

"Vlad, you're under a lot of stress," Dimitri said. "Let me handle the business stuff right now."

"I am not under stress," Vlad said.

"Yes, you are," Dimitri said. "I know you found the man who killed your father. My brother. We both miss him, but you should not let this get in the way of this important business deal."

"You don't understand, uncle!" Vlad said.

"You think I don't want to avenge Rasputin's death?" Dimitri said. "I want to kill that cop as much as you do, but you're letting this whole thing fuck with your head. You're my nephew and I'm trying to help you here."

"No! I will not let that cop breathe the same air as us," Vlad said. "After my father died, the Bratva was almost dead. It took a bit for both of us to get it back together."

"So let me handle the business and then we can handle that pig for what he did to Rocky," Dimitri said. "You need my help with this. Some of your man had said that you've been under stress for the past few days."

"Okay, we'll work together, we can handle the business, but I'll be the one who kills Nick Kang Wilson," Vlad said. "After what he did to father, I want to watch him bleed."

"You got it, I want to see it, too," Dimitri said. "But right now, we need to find those guys who fucked us over and then we handle our shit."

It was clear that Vlad's uncle Dimitri wanted to avenge Rocky's death as much as his nephew did. But he also wanted to keep his head in the whole thing. He was more about being professional before moving to the personal side of things. Either way, they were determined to take care of Nick Kang soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this one. I have ideas for the next one, so I may start on it really soon.
> 
> I wanted to give some insight to the villains of the story. Like I said before, though Nick and Marcus are teaming together, they each have their own agendas but in the end, things will tie up together.


	17. Hot Time in Venice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to do some brainstorming for this because I realized that some stuff I wrote in the previous chapter may be a bit much. You'll see in a bit.

It was afternoon. The day was not over yet. Nick and Marcus face death straight in the eye when they went to raid a house that had a drug lab, as well as a stash of weapons that a low-level gang sat on for safekeeping. Some of the surviving suspects were brought in for questioning, but there was still more than what met the eye.

Nick and Marcus drove down the streets, trying to decide on what to do. Nick had decided to pay some people a visit to that tire shop from before, as well as talk with the undercover feds who were on the case with that beach gang. Being that Venice and Santa Monica were close to each other, it would be the best option to handle them one at a time.

Nick picked up the phone to make a call to the Discount Tire in Santa Monica. He drove on the street waiting for the call to get through until he heard someone say "Hello?"

"Hello, this is Detective Nick Kang," Nick said. "I was wondering if Francis and Joey are working today. I need to talk to them."

"Neither of them are here today," the person on the other end said. "They're off today. Should I take a message or something?"

"No, that's okay," Nick said. "I'll swing by sometime soon. Thanks."

Marcus looked towards Nick. "What happened?"

"Those guys are off today," Nick said. "Something tells me that the person was lying, though."

"We already talked to those guys the other day," Marcus said. "Besides, that one girl is counting on you to find her boyfriend. If I were you, I would go do that shit right now before some Russians find his ass."

Marcus was right. When he and Nick went to check that guy's house, those hired guns were ready to kill someone. Nick remembered when he asked that woman Tina some questions and she told him that her boyfriend Ray was getting in deep with some really bad people.

"But those feds probably know something about those guns and who they belong to," Nick said. Conveniently enough, his phone rang right when he said that and he immediately picked up.

"This is Nick Kang, live from the crime scene," Nick said.

"Nick, this is no time for jokes," Chief Parks said.

"Chief, what's going on?" Nick said.

"Listen, Nick, I just need to tell you to not worry about the stuff with the weapons," Chief Parks said. "Masterson called and from what he told me, his undercover agents gained some intel about those arms. They gave some information how that guy Bunker Weiss and his crew were asked to sit on those arms for some Russians. They even said that Richard Tyler was cooking some of the drugs for some of the Russians to sell, as well as that crew. That beach gang was working with the Russians. Maybe that was connected to that picture I showed you at that Mick's."

"So what are you telling me?" Nick said.

"I am saying you don't need to talk with them yet," Chief Parks said. "Masterson has agreed to give us some information that you guys need for this case. But what do you think that those arms are for?"

"Reed here made a good point earlier about how the Russians may be doing some kind of deal," Nick said. "Anyway, I'll get back to you. I got a call earlier about something. I'll let you know if I find something."

Nick hung up and put his phone away.

Marcus said, "So what's the deal?"

"The feds told the chief some stuff," Nick said. "Those weapons were to be held for some Russians. I think you may be onto something, Reed. Those weapons look to be used for some deal. Chief told me that the Russians had some of those guys sit on the weapons, but they also wanted that geek to cook up the drugs for dealing."

"Well, with these drugs coming from New York, those weapons have to be for some gang out there," Marcus said.

"That might be a start, but how do you figure?" Nick said.

"I got that fool from earlier to talk," Marcus said. "But for this to happen, there's got to be something bigger than that. How could some crime syndicate in LA be forming some alliance with a New York crime syndicate? Some must have set this up."

"There's always someone at the top of the ladder," Nick said. "I did not expect the Triads and Russkies from before to be working with the North Korean army."

"I think I remember hearing about that on the news," Marcus said. "Just like how with all of the gangs I busted, the mole behind all that shit was my fucking mentor."

Nick looked at Marcus with a bit of confusion when he said that.

"Excuse me?" Nick said.

"I'll tell you the whole story one day, but let's just say that I was a pawn in someone's plan," Marcus said.

"You never know who is playing you," Nick said. "Anyway, we're going to check out a Best Western in Venice. Seems that guy Ray is staying over there, or at least was. We better get there before someone beats us to it."

* * *

It took quite a bit to get to Venice. Not too long, but it was quite a drive from EOD headquarters. They drove around to find any Best Western hotels but couldn't find any. He pulled the car over to the side where plenty of beachgoers were walking around. Several men and women in swimwear, as well as people walking their dogs, as well as surfers ready to hit the water for some waves.

"You think this girl lied to us?" Marcus said.

"I don't know," Nick said. "Her boyfriend was involved in that heist that I took down. She said that she wasn't involved, something told me she was speaking the truth, even though I didn't believe her at first."

"You can't always trust people, you know," Marcus said.

Nick got out his phone and called Tina.

"Hey, Tina, this is Detective Kang," Nick said. "Listen, my partner and I are searching Venice for a Best Western. Last I check, the Best Westerns are in Santa Monica."

"That's what Ray told me," Tina said. "He gave me the number to his room."

"Give me that number and I'll have someone trace it," Nick said.

Tina listed the numbers for that particular phone number. It seemed like maybe this guy was really on the run that he wouldn't tell his own girlfriend where he was staying.

"Listen, I'll call you back and I will talk to him about meeting with you," Nick said.

"What did she say?" Marcus said.

"I'll tell you in a bit," Nick said and called headquarters. There was one person he needed to call.

"Hello, Rosie, I need you to do me a favor," Nick said. "Can you run this phone number for me please?"

"Sure thing, Nick," Rosie said on the other line. "This should take a bit."

The two detectives sat in the car and after a couple of minutes, Rosie said, "Okay, I got it. It seems that the calls to that woman were from the Venice Beach Hostel. It's one of the cheapest places in Venice and Marina Del Ray."

"Thanks, Rosie, all I need," Nick said and quickly hung up and started the car.

Marcus looked around and saw some people strolling around the beach. Some didn't look like they were ready to go catch some rays or to go for a swim. No, they looked rather suspicious, as they were in black suits and had an Eastern European look to them.

It didn't take long for Nick to pull up in front of the hostel. Lucky for him, he had that picture of Ray and Tina with him. Nick went right for the front door, while Marcus stayed behind.

"Nick, I'll be on the lookout outside," Marcus said.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Nick said. Marcus nodded at that.

Nick went up to the front desk, where a man in his late-30s to early-40s was sitting.

"Excuse me, sir," Nick said. "Police business, EOD, I'm here on inspection."

"What kind of inspection?" the receptionist said.

"I'll cut right to the chase," Nick said and immediately flashed that photo. "Have you had this man here check into any of your rooms?"

The receptionist had a look of suspicion on his face.

"Don't give me that look, I'm a cop," Nick said. "Some really bad people are looking for him."

"I ain't sayin' nothin'," the receptionist said.

"Okay, but just remember that I am trying to protect this guy from getting his fucking head blown off," Nick said and turned around to head to the door.

"Okay, okay, okay," the receptionist said. "He is in room 22 on the second floor. But I saw him leave to go somewhere about 10 minutes ago. He went to grab some food."

"Okay, thanks for telling me," Nick said.

Nick got out and Marcus was checking out the area. He signaled to Nick and looked another way. It seemed that to the left corner of him across the street were those two men.

Nick whispered to Marcus, "Let's walk a bit down the street."

In that moment, the two Russian gangsters followed them and went down the street. One was ready to reach for a gun, but the other shook his head. He pulled out the bottom of his jacket and saw a knife in a sheath clipped to his belt.

After a bit, Nick and Marcus walked up and saw a Caucasian male in his mid-to-late-20s walking. Nick saw him and immediately recognized him. It was Ray, who looked up and was all, "oh shit."

"Ray, relax, we just need to have a word with you," Nick said.

"It's not that," Ray said. "BEHIND YOU!"

But the two detectives knew what was up. As soon as Marcus turned around, he saw that one of the assassins gripped and brandished the knife in a stabbing position and came right at him in a stabbing motion. But Marcus thought ahead, grabbed the man by the arm and slammed the man's hand right against a hard wall, causing him to drop the knife. Knowing that the man was not about to give up, he saw the Russian throw a left hook towards him. Marcus quickly ducked grabbed the man's left hand and twisted the man's arm and pushed him up against the wall and got out a pair of handcuffs and shoved him to the ground.

Meanwhile, Nick nearly experienced the same thing, except he quickly ducked and jumped up to deliver a hard side kick to the man's face. At that very moment, Ray started to run away.

"Marcus, I'll go handle Ray," Nick said. "You take care of these two."

"Got it, partner," Marcus said.

Nick saw that Ray was up ahead a bit and across the street. He quickly ran after him. Along the way, when a car pulled up to an intersection, he jumped and slid across the hid, much to the shock of the driver.

Marcus got out it his Razr phone and called 911. "Hello, this is Detective Marcus Reed. I am working with the Elite Operations Division. Requesting backup on Washington Boulevard in Marina Del Ray. Send some backup, stat!"

However, he saw that the other Russian hitman got up and didn't pay much mind to him. No, his only concern was taking care of Ray and possibly Nick. So he got up and ran right in the same direction where Nick was going. This guy appeared to be in good shape as he ran like the wind and did not stop if he got winded.

Luckily, Marcus saw a beach cop on a bicycle roll by.

"Hey, I got to go after this guy," Marcus said, referring to the handcuffed thug. "I requested backup. More units shall come."

"You got it, officer," the bike cop said.

Marcus went after the other thug. The thug came across a man on a dirt-bike talking to a woman and then pushed him off and took the bike.

"Fuck me," Marcus said.

By a stroke of coincidence, he saw a guy in a Jaguar pull up. He was wearing nice clothes, was African-American, and had dreads. With this guy ahead of him on a motorbike, he needed to catch up to him somehow. He would use the muscle car, but Nick had the keys on him. He had no other choice.

Marcus went up to the man in the car and flashed his badge. "Police, I need your bike right now."

"Fuck you, man, this is my car, I own this car, it is NOT stolen!" the man said. Funny he should be saying that to Marcus, as he was a black man as well. Even then, on the surface one would suspect that Marcus was trying to carjack the man, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Marcus was a detective with his own methods, even if it meant bending the rules a bit at times.

Marcus pulled out his pistol and pointed it at him. "It is now, move over."

"Man, fuck that, I'm going to pick up my woman in a bit," the man said.

"That ain't my problem," Marcus said. "I only need for it a bit. You just sit tight and then you go do your thing. Just be on the lookout for some guy on a dirt bike."

"You scratch this puppy, and me and you are gonna have a few words!" the car owner said.

Marcus tailed the man on the bike, while the man was Marcus's personal lookout man at that point. The man on the bike was farther ahead. With so many people walking around the pavement, it was hard to maintain speed. It shouldn't be too hard to figure it out as they were close to the beach. He even made a left in an intersection, causing some cars to bump into each other. Lucky for Marcus, he passed by a couple of alleys and saw the hitman on the dirt-bike on the other end each time.

_I got you now, motherfucker._ Marcus thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nick had been running after Ray. Being that Nick was in better shape than Ray, he knew that Ray would not get very far. It wasn't that Ray was overweight or anything like that, but because he had a drug problem, there was just no way that this guy's stamina was up to par with a martial artist like Nick.

Nick managed to catch up to Ray at some point and told him to follow him in through a restaurant to try to evade the hitman.

"EOD," Nick said to the hostess and flashed his badge. "We'll be right out. Can you tell me where the restroom is?"

The hostess pointed to the direction. Nick held onto Ray as they walked through some people waiting to be seated. The way he walked Ray to the restroom area drew attention on some patrons who were eating their meals.

Nick guided Ray into the men's room and let him go.

"Well, well, Ray, didn't think I'd find you, did you?" Nick said. "Didn't think that those Russians would find you either, huh?"

"The fuck do you want from me?" Ray said. "I told you that I needed to be away a few days ago."

"Well, obviously you didn't get very far," Nick said. "Tina's been really worried about you."

"Tina…," Ray said and looked away. "Please, just keep her out of this."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't," Nick said.

Ray panted a bit in response. He didn't know what to say.

"I don't have all day, Ray," Nick said. "Just tell me what is going on here."

Ray still couldn't say anything. It was just that hard for him to do this.

"I'll take you to the station," Nick said. "I will call Tina so that you can meet with her there."

Ray nodded his head. The two exited the restroom and headed to the front entrance of the eatery. Right when they were about to exit, Nick saw the dirt-bike roll by, and not too far behind, a Jaguar with two black men in it rolled by, as it looked like it was following the bike. Nick realized that Marcus was the man driving. A squad car pulled up as well.

Nick quickly ran towards the car and told the uniformed cops to keep an eye on Ray. The two cops agreed to it.

Nick told Ray, "Stay with these two. I got to help my partner out."

* * *

Marcus was on the tail of the hitman, who continued to look for Nick and Ray. He sped through more traffic. He realized that he should catch him in the opposite direction. The hitman came in close with Marcus facing him now.

"I think that's him," the car owner said.

"Are you insured?" Marcus said.

"Yeah, why?!" the car owner said.

Even in the streets of New York, Marcus certainly knew how to do some tricks with cars.

"Won't promise that this won't ding your car," Marcus said and quickly turned the steering wheel hard, causing the car to turn in 180 degrees and stomped on the brake as it hit the bike, causing it to crash into a curb and send the hitman flying into a window.

The glass shattered, the hitman fell right through and knocked some tables with food. He crashed into a restaurant with a lot of people in the dining area. He even knocked a patron down. The patron pushed him off and the hitman found a woman sitting at a table dining with a man, likely her husband or boyfriend.. Marcus got inside through the broken window.

"Everybody down, now! Police!" Marcus yelled.

The hitman grabbed the woman and put her in chokehold, like she was a human shield and got out a knife. This restaurant was two-story and the hitman dragged this innocent woman up the stairs. Marcus quickly drew his .45.

"Release the woman, motherfucker!" Marcus yelled. It didn't stop the hitman from putting the sharp end of the knife close to her neck.

The hitman continued to drag the woman up the stairs. The woman clearly struggled with this, but also knew that if she tried anything else, she would be dead on the spot. The hitman saw a door, but it was locked as he tried to open it but couldn't.

"Give it up, asshole!" Marcus yelled. "Release the woman, motherfucker, I'll fucking shoot!"

Much to Marcus's shock, the hitman released the woman and pushed her down the stairs as he jumped the railing, knocking down a busboy and a cook and went into the kitchen. He even jumped the counter where waiters and waitresses pick up the food to serve patrons.

"Are you okay, Miss?" Marcus said to the woman, who nodded her head.

Marcus quickly went right to the kitchen by going around.

"You have nowhere to go now, give it up!" Marcus said.

Before Marcus could draw his gun, the hitman hit Marcus in the hand with a pan that was on the counter. He then picked up a kitchen knife and tried to stab Marcus with it. Marcus quickly dodged it. With it being so cramped where they were, Marcus grabbed the hitman and pushed him against the counter where the drawers were. But the hitman shoved Marcus off of him and delivered a right hand to the face. The thug tried to crawl, but Marcus delivered a hard front kick to the hitman's face.

A couple of cooks stood there and watched, wondering if they should help Marcus. The hitman, still on the floor, picked up the knife and swung it across Marcus's left leg, ripping a slight hole into his jeans. He got back up and brandished the knife in a stabbing position. But Marcus quickly grabbed the assassin's arm and drove it to the counter to get him to release the blade. But he wasn't done, as he saw a stove nearby, which happened to be on. Marcus drove the hitman's right hand right to stove. The hitman screamed loudly, causing the patrons and other stuff to look up.

"You got the right to remain silent, asshole," Marcus said. "But I can let that scream slide."

Nick entered the restaurant through the front entrance. He saw Marcus struggling to walk that guy out.

"Cuff his ass," Marcus said to Nick.

The hitman looked right at Nick and said, "It's you. You're that cop."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's me, yada, yada, yada," Nick said. "Tell it to your boss."

Nick grabbed him and grabbed the handcuffs and put the hitman's hands behind his back as he stood in front of him. Nick kneed the hitman in the gut a bit. Marcus yelled "motherfucker!" and punched the man to his side. Everyone in the restaurant watched as this happened and continued to look on as they took the hitman outside.

Ray sat in the back of the squad car that Nick had those two beat cops look after him. Another squad car pulled up as Nick leaned in closely to the hitman's ear.

"I know who you work for," Nick whispered to the man's ear. "I know you were sent to kill Ray and I think I was your next target. Just tell your boss one thing if you see him: I'm coming for him sooner or later."

The hitman looked at Nick with some confusion. He just knew that he was not messing around, especially now that he was onto the Russians at that point. Marcus opened the door for the back seat of that cop car. Nick shoved the hitman into it.

Nick and Marcus saw that everyone around looked on, even bystanders who were outside. They just knew what went down in that restaurant.

"Nothing to see here, folks," Nick said.

Nick and Marcus walked around and saw that cop car from before. Nick went up to the driver and told him, along with his female partner to take that man in the back seat to EOD headquarters in Downtown LA. Nick informed them that the man was with them. The two uniformed cops nodded their heads in agreement.

Close by, a couple of black men were in a car. One saw the two cops.

"There they go right there." One of the men turned out to be A.K., Bobby Green's right-hand man. The other was Big Tank.

"Should we go for it?" Big Tank said.

"Nah, you heard that fool Mike," A.K. said. "He's onto us, but we're going to take that pig out soon."

"I'll fuck that fool up with my own hands," Big Tank said. "You know how I do shit sometimes."

"Yeah, I know that," A.K. said. "But something tells me we should go outside the family. We got to talk with the Russians to see if they know anybody who can take these two out. But until then, we'll figure it out. Besides, B.G. wants to become R.G. That pig wants Bobby to take him on himself, but we ain't gonna let that happen. That fool gone soft ever since he became a pig."

"Don't say that," Big Tank said. "You saw what he did to the other gangs in New York."

"He got lucky," A.K. said. "Enough of this shit. Let's get the fuck out of here. We'll handle him soon."

Meanwhile, Marcus and Nick had gone back to the Venice Beach Hostel. They decided to go back to the precinct. Nick started up the car.

"I got to make a call first," Nick said and got out his phone. It wasn't long until the car went through.

"Tina, this is Detective Kang," Nick said. "We found Ray. I want you to meet us at the E.O.D. headquarters. You two need to talk. I'll see you in a bit."

* * *

Back at headquarters, the two detectives brought Ray in, who looked up and saw an attractive redhead woman with a few cops with her. It was Tina.

"Ray, what's going on?" Tina said.

Nick cut in. "If you two want to talk, you two need to do it in private. I'll take you to a room where you two could talk it out."

Nick led the way for the couple to talk this whole thing out. Marcus stood back with Rosie, Rico, and Chief Parks in silence.

"Rosie," Marcus said, breaking the silence. "When you and I talked the other night, you said that you have had people from your past try to take you out, right?"

"Yes, I did," Rosie said.

"It's happened to me, too," Rico said. "I also have a criminal past with gangs and stuff. It's nothing new."

"Yeah, but do you ever have someone you have a long history with somehow coming back after so long and try to take you out," Marcus said.

"It can happen," Rosie said. "Why? What's going on?"

"I'm just asking, that's all," Marcus said. "Excuse me, I need to make a call right now."

* * *

Inside the interrogation room, Tina and Ray sat in front of each other. Tina clearly wanted to talk, but it seemed that Ray was hesitant in doing this.

"Ray, come on, talk to me," Tina said. "I know things haven't been working out for us lately, but I wouldn't be here if I didn't care what was going on with you. You got to tell me about what caused you and those assholes to rob the bank the other day. Are you in some kind of trouble?"

It was then that Ray looked at up Tina directly in the eye.

"I'm going to tell you everything right now," Ray said. "I'm going to tell you this because I love you and I would never want to hurt you in any way, even though I haven't been straight with you lately."

Ray paused and cleared his throat.

"Okay, here it goes," Ray said. "I have been in heavy shit lately with some Russian gangsters. I know I have gotten back into my bad habits. I needed to make some money somehow. So these Russian gangsters came to me, Neil, and Joe to see if we wanted to push this new drug that hit the streets sometime recently. But because I can't seem to break my drug habits, I tried out that new drug. I read about Pop. It's supposed to be like Ecstasy and Coke, but with more of the kick. I didn't have the right amount of money to deliver to the main boss. Somehow they got word that I was getting high on my own supply, which meant that I didn't make the right amount of money that they needed. They thought I was ripping them off. So I needed to find a way to pay them back."

"So that means you guys needed to hit the bank," Tina said. "You know how I feel about those guys you were with."

"Yeah, I know, you don't have to tell me," Ray said.

"Yeah, but Neil put a gun right to my head," Tina said. "I peed in my dress that day."

"You don't know the whole story," Ray said. "Neil had been wanting to pull a score for a while. When we got to the bank, I knew that it was the bank that you worked at, but he told me to shut up and do the job. Apparently, he and Joe had some involvement in the drugs, but mostly with those guys in Venice. Neil and Joe were connected, but they weren't part of their crew. Neil was only cool with that asshole Bunker, but that was it. However, I owed the Russians a lot of money, so this was one way of trying to get the money to them."

"I see," Tina said. "Look, I'm not blaming you for any of this, but you should have told me about the problems you were going through."

"If I did, I would put you in danger," Ray said. "That's why I have kept you out of all my shit lately. I know that we were on the verge of breaking up, but I love you so much that I can't let you get involved. I don't want anybody to hurt you. In fact, since you told me that Neil had put his gun to your head, it pissed me off."

"How could you not know that they put a good to my head?" Tina said.

"Like I said, I've been on drugs lately," Ray said. "I was fucking high when I was supposed to look out and shoot in case things got messy. I'm so fucking stupid, I can't believe that I let the drugs get the better of me. I couldn't stop myself from the relapse." Suddenly, Ray's voice cracked.

Tina went forth and hugged him and started crying as well.

From the other side of the wall, Nick stood there and watched and overheard everything. This whole conversation was being recorded on video, as well as recorded on audio. Just then, Chief Parks walked in.

"What do you got, Nick?" Chief Parks said.

"It seems that this was all the therapy this fool needed this whole time," Nick said. "But I did not expect there to be any connection to that beach gang."

"What a coincidence," Chief Parks said.

"You bet your ass," Nick said. "Looks like I may have to pay Ray's friends a visit sometime soon."

"Hey, Reed told us that you got into another scuffle with some Russian gangsters a little while as well," Chief Parks said.

"This guy was on the run from them," Nick said. "Something tells me that the Russians are trying to tie up loose ends."

"What do you mean?" Chief Parks said.

"Because of that shit with those weapons earlier," Nick said. "Word will go back to them. I'd hate to do this, but I have to find that Weiss guy now."

"You've done a lot today," Chief Parks said.

"When do I ever stop?" Nick said.

"That's always something I've admired about you, Nick, you never know when to quit," Chief Parks said. "Got to respect that."

"Damn right," Nick said and then left the room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Marcus went outside headquarters. He got out his cellphone. There was one person he needed to call. This time, it wasn't Lt. Dixon, nor was it his father Isaiah. It was someone else, someone who was his only link in this town. He called and waited for the call to get through.

"Hello, Vivian?" Marcus said. "This is Detective Reed."

"Hello, Detective Reed, how's it going?" Vivian said.

"Fine, listen, I want to know something," Marcus said. "I got your text message earlier. Where are your boyfriend's friends going to be tonight?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this one. I left it on a cliffhanger. The next chapter will be one that I have wanted to do lately. That means I will be bringing Vivian and her boyfriend Han back into the mix. I know I haven't done much for them lately, but they're still in the story. Just like how there will be more with the yakuza.
> 
> Regarding the chase on the streets of Venice, I used two movies as inspiration. One was the chase scene in Colors (1988) when Sean Penn and Robert Duvall chased after the character of High Top and then ended up in the restaurant. The other with the Jaguar was a bit inspired by Speed (1994). Funny thing though, as both that scene from Colors and that scene from Speed had the same actor in it, and that was Glenn Plummer.
> 
> Regarding the stuff I said in the first note, I will note that I didn't think much through in the previous chapter, so I clarified that Agent Masterson had spoken to his undercover agents about the arms supply and left out Francis and Jojo. They may appear again later, but I just didn't want to have too much in there. Plus, I felt that I needed to have Ray come back. Another thing I should note is that I found out afterwards that no Best Westerns are located in Venice, so I put that in as someone lying to ensure no one finds him. I researched it and had it be that he was staying at the Venice Beach Hostel, which exists, by the way.
> 
> The next one will be one that I had been wanting to do lately. I will get to that soon. Peace.


	18. Let's Make a Deal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a bit since I updated this. I had trouble with the brainstorming for this, but I came up with something. This will mainly be a Marcus chapter, though Nick will play a part, but it's mainly with Marcus's subplot. Hope you enjoy it

This had been a busy day for Marcus, as well as Nick. They went to a house and nearly got killed. They went back to the same area as before to find someone, only to see that someone was out for that man's blood. The day was not over yet.

Marcus had made a call to Vivian Shen, a person whom Marcus had cross paths with in the not-too-distant past. In fact, it had only been about a year. Marcus had asked Vivian something vital to the case.

"Why do you want to know where I can find them?" Vivian said.

"You sent me the text message, remember?" Marcus said. "I want to know if one of those guys was the guy who gave you that shiner. Don't tell me you're having second thoughts now."

"No, it's not that," Vivian said.

"Then what is the problem?" Marcus said.

"The problem is that Han and I talked earlier and he is onto you like crazy," Vivian said. "He thinks that you got lucky in beating him but somehow thinks that there was something up with us."

"So he suspects something, huh? You didn't tell him that I was a cop, did you?" Marcus said.

"No, but he's really suspicious about you," Vivian said. "He called me last night right after you left. He thinks that there is something going on between us."

"What did you tell him?" Marcus said.

"I covered it up by saying that you were an old friend from New York and that you were visiting LA, that's all," Vivian said.

"Did he believe you?" Marcus said.

"I don't know, but it didn't sound like he did," Vivian said.

Hearing this made Marcus's suspicions of the man increase.

"Will he be out there tonight?" Marcus said.

"No, he won't," Vivian said.

"Well then, tell me who I should talk to," Marcus said. "This will get me closer to busting whoever hit you and any other suppliers in the area. Remember, you sent me that message earlier. It sounds to me like you want to bring those guys down."

Vivian sighed on the other line during the conversation. "Okay, I'll give you a name. The guy's name is Dai Tran. He is actually a friend of Han's, but unlike Han, he's trying to get in good with the triads out here."

"So he is your man's boy?" Marcus said.

"They're friends, yes, but he is also a total asshole," Vivian said. "If the fact that he hit me wasn't proof enough, this guy acts like he is the shit on the race scene. Besides, he hit me because I came up short a few times with some of the money because Han had sent me to deliver his cut a few times. Not only that, he wanted to fuck me and was pissed that I wouldn't let him. He was drunk when he hit me that one time, but Han confronted him about it. For the most part, that guy is bad news. I want him gone. Not dead, but just out of my life."

Having heard her say that, it brought to light that maybe this Han guy was not good for Vivian after all. Hell, maybe this guy wasn't all that good of a friend to Han, or could it be that Han would be willing to pimp her out? So many thoughts flowed through his mind right then and there.

"I'll keep that name in mind," Marcus said. "Thanks, Vivian."

"You're welcome," Vivian said. "I'll keep you posted on more if I find something."

Once the call ended, Marcus looked away and put his right hand to his mouth as he sighed at what he heard in that conversation. Is this young woman trying to protect her boyfriend and his friends? There was a big hunch that he had about all of this. It was common for some people to follow the wrong crowd, but there was just something off about this relationship she was in. Something just did not add up here.

He even reflected on how she acted the night before, especially with the idea in Marcus's mind that Han may have been sleeping with Gypsy, the stripper. Open relationships were a common thing, but Vivian sounded like she had her own convictions, but the tone in her voice really made Marcus think that she was in denial.

He went back into the precinct and went to find Chief Parks and Rosie, who were both at Rosie's desk.

"…So I got that tonight," Rosie said. "Rico and I need to check with that guy Pete at the Body Fantastique about the money for the stuff out there."

"Hey," Marcus said and the two lady cops turned their attentions towards him. "Sorry to jump, but I need to ask you something. Can you find something on a guy named Dai Tran?"

"Not a problem, Marcus," Rosie said. "What's this for?"

"This is about that girl I saw at the strip club the other night," Marcus said. "She gave me some information on some friends of her boyfriend."

"Really?" Chief Parks said. "So she is helping you trying to catch some friends of her boyfriend?"

"Something like that," Marcus said. "It's more complicated than you would think."

Rosie looked at her computer and searched the database. Once she hit the T's, she scrolled down until she found the blends with the TR as the first couple of letters. Once she reached the name "Dai Tran," she clicked through and a mugshot came up of a young Chinese-American man who looked to be in his early-to-mid-20s and had his hair in a buzz-cut.

"Is that him?" Marcus said.

"It's the only one I could find in the database," Rosie said. "It says here that he had been busted for taking part in street-racing and also property damage. It looks like he was arrested for assault and battery."

"What about drug possession or distribution?" Marcus said.

"I can't find anything like this, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deal in stuff like that," Rosie said. "Just hasn't been caught for that yet."

"Hold on a sec," Marcus said and got out his Razr phone and took a picture of the computer monitor and sent the picture to Vivian and asked if that was him.

DING! Marcus's phone just made a sound. He picked it up and it said "1 unread text message." He opened it and it read:

_Yes, that's him, except he has hair dyed blonde now. But other than that, he looks the same._

"What was that, Reed?" Parks said.

"Looks like we found a lead," Marcus said.

"Wait just a minute," Parks said. "What's going on here?"

Marcus added, "That girl who I'm helping, when I went to the races last night, there was talk that her boyfriend is dealing. It seems that some friends of his are dealing the same stuff. Maybe they can lead us to a supplier."

"Where will this go down?" Parks said.

"I was told it will go down in Chinatown," Marcus said. "I may need some help on this."

"Okay, we'll issue a warrant and provide the money for the deal, but do you need some assistance?" Parks said.

"I would help," Rosie said. "But I got something to do later for my case involving that strip club owner, who is working with the Russians."

"Perhaps I can help," a male voice said as everyone looked up. It was Nick.

"Did I hear you guys say Chinatown?" Nick said. "I think I can help with this."

"Nick, glad for you to join us," Parks said. "I know you two have had a busy day today."

"Shit, you don't got to tell me," Nick said. "This kind of thing isn't a one-man job."

"Well, Reed here told us that he got a tip about a deal going on in Chinatown tonight," Parks said.

Just hearing that being said made him remember what Marcus told him earlier that same day and looked directly at Marcus. "You're going to need my help, especially out there where the triad runs."

"Got it," Marcus said. "I got to prepare myself for this."

"All of you need to prepare yourselves," Parks said.

"But Chief, I am not involved in their case," Rosie said.

"Doesn't matter, you and Rico said that you have to go talk with the owner of the strip club," Parks said.

"Right, I know what you mean now," Rosie said.

All of the detectives had to prepare themselves for what was to come later. It was late in the afternoon. Even on a Saturday, they all had a busy day and it was not over yet for them.

* * *

Hours had passed. The sun had set as night had fallen over Los Angeles. Nick and Marcus had gone out to Chinatown to look for this suspect who may be a potential lead to any other suppliers. Although both detectives had their own agendas in the matter, they were also focused on the case. But was Nick right about what he said before regarding Marcus helping out Vivian for personal reasons? Marcus wondered that now.

During the entire major case he took part in the previous year, it seemed that Vivian was the only innocent one who was connected to any of those crime syndicates, in general. Marcus and the feds were tricked into busting the Latin Lords, their primary rival in New York. Vincent Tuzzi, head of the Palermo Mob, had a personal trainer who may or may not have been a bodyguard of some sort, as she was arrested for assaulting Marcus when he went to make his final bust to Tuzzi. The Presidents Club had their own issues as Lionel Jones's mentor, yakuza head Kobi Takayama, went after him.

Vivian owed Marcus for him saving her life twice. She was the only one in the mix of any of those cases who wasn't killed or jailed. With her somehow getting mixed up with the wrong crowd, Marcus just happened to cross paths with her yet again, in the middle of a case he was involved in.

The two detectives arrived in Chinatown in the muscle car, the same one used before when they went to Venice the second time. Marcus had gotten a message from Vivian that pinpointed where Dai will be and gave Marcus a heads up that Dai won't be alone. Usually, these types of operations involve multiple people, though a potential buyer can come alone depending on the situation.

Marcus looked around and found a group of four Chinese-American guys hanging out close to the Chinatown Central Plaza. In fact, they were in front of a takeout restaurant on N. Broadway Street.

"That's got to be him," Marcus said. Nick looked up and saw the group of four. He even noticed one guy who had a blonde buzz-cut.

"Shit, what's up with that guy's hair?" Nick said. "Looks like that guy went a little peroxide crazy."

"I don't know, but I got to see what this guy's deal is," Marcus said.

"Okay, you go do your thing, I'll be watching and listening," Nick said. "I'll make my move if things get hot.

Marcus turned towards Nick. "I got this. I know exactly what I'm doing here."

Both men saw the group of guys once again.

"These guys look too small time. They don't look like they could be triad." Nick said.

"They look wannabes to me," Marcus said. "Still, you should watch my back a bit. Besides, I'm wearing a wire and we got support close by, right?"

"That's right, we do, but we could take them," Nick said. "I'll be listening as well."

Marcus nodded his head and opened the door to step out and reached inside for a large bag and carried it with him. He walked over to the group of guys who were just hanging out. One even tried to talk some random passerby into buying some narcotics.

One of the guys looked over and saw Marcus approach them.

"Oh, shit, Dai, we got a potential buyer here," one guy said, who wore a muscle shirt and black pants and had spiky hair.

Dai, who had a black jacket on and looked up and saw Marcus approaching them.

"Well, what have we here? You're a long way from the hood, homie," Dai said to Marcus. "Come to buy some stuff?"

"Yeah, homeboy," another guy said, with a fade on his head. "There's got to be a reason for you to come out here."

Marcus stood before them with a smirk on his face, as he found their racism comical in a rather pathetic sense. As a black man, Marcus was no stranger to prejudice, but with these guys using some terms like "homie" and "homeboy," he just took them in stride.

"I just want to know what the best shit you got, son, is" Marcus said. "I hear you sell some Pop. That shit is fire on the streets, ain't it?"

Dai looked at some of his friends. The one with the spiky hair was named Joseph. The one with the fade had a dark denim jacket with a plain white shirt and black pants was named Johnny. The fourth guy was named Sonny and wore a black and white polo shirt with blue jeans. They all chuckled at Marcus.

"Don't know what you're talking about, homie," Dai said. "Who told you anything about Pop here?"

"First off, my name is Jimmy Mac, not homie," Marcus said. "I think I saw you guys at the race last night trying to support your boy Han. I've been asking around and I want a piece of the action and see what it's all about, ya dig?"

"Oh, so you want some of this shit, huh?" Dai said. "Step into my office."

Dai and his crew led the way for Marcus to go into an alley before any cops tried to rush them.

As soon as they got into the alleyway, Dai said, "You want to business, huh? Then let's talk business. I know this shit will get you fucked up."

"No matter, I'm willing to give it a try if I feel that I can sell this shit to clubs around here," Marcus said. "So I want to know one thing: what's your price?"

Dai scoffed. "For you, R. Kelly, 20."

"Twenty? What are you selling, just a bag or multiple bags? Man, you must be doing the dope," Marcus said. "Bring it down, you got to get realistic. What I'm talking about is a lower price. Down, down, down, come again, come again."

"What, you trying to lowball me or something?" Dai said. "That's my price, man, take it or leave it."

Marcus took a deep breath and suspected that these guys didn't know how the drug business worked, at least when just selling a bag or two, or even selling a key of cocaine.

"Yo, check this out, homeboy," Marcus said and gave Dai a tap on the shoulder. "You got to see it from another way. Why don't we do this reasonable? 14k." Marcus made a few gestures like clapping and swaying his hands away and making a "bam" sound. "I'm out, man. What do you say to that?"

The four guys looked at each other and saw that Marcus had a way of doing business. They all tried to signal and mouth each other and also tried talking to each other in Mandarin, as it was implied that they think Marcus was trying to lowball them, despite his offer only being $6,000 less than their initial price. They seemed a bit nervous at the way they handled it. This wasn't like they were dealing cocaine. However, Pop seemed to be quite the designer drug as Marcus had been informed that this drug was like MDMA and cocaine but with "10 times the kick," which made it rather valuable.

These guys don't know shit, do they? Marcus thought.

Meanwhile, Nick was in the car listening in on this conversation. He, too, found their racist remarks more amusing than offensive. He had experienced some prejudice in his life, too, as both he and his brother Cary were half-white and half-Chinese and faced worse discrimination from people in Hong Kong when they went to live with their mother's relatives there when they were a lot younger.

One thing that went through Nick's mind about this was how convincing Marcus was at doing this. Usually undercover cops have to study how they're supposed to act in doing an assignment like this. But with Marcus, this came naturally.

"Do you want to do this direct or not, man? Seventeen, man," Dai said. "Okay, let me see the money. Show me what you got."

Marcus reached for the strap on his bag and pulled it from his shoulder. He reached for the zipper and slowly unzipped the big, revealing stacks of money.

"What you know about that, homeboy?" Marcus said as Dai looked inside the bag and shot Marcus with a glare. Dai punched Marcus in the gut, Marcus yelled "oh" and bent over a tad.

"Jump this fool, guys," Dai said and took off running.

Marcus got up and saw Joseph, Sonny, and Johnny getting closer, ready to make their moves. Although Marcus had taken on multiple guys at once before, his only concern was going after Dai, who took off running with the bag of money. So Marcus swung a hard a right hand to Joseph's face and took off running.

Joseph put his right hand to his face, slightly bruised from the punch. "Get that fool, now!"

"I don't think so," a male voice said from behind them, causing the three young men to turn around, only to see that Nick stood there at the back of the alleyway.

"Who the fuck are you?" Johnny said.

Nick gripped his right fist with his left hand a bit, and did the same to his left fist with his right hand. "Just a concerned citizen," Nick said.

"You shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong," Sonny said.

"I beg to differ," Nick said. "Let's dance."

The three men got out some brass knuckles, a chain, and a knife. They were ready to put Nick through the beating of his life.

"Oh, so you want to play that way, huh?" Nick said and put up a fighting stance. "Come on, show me what you got."

* * *

Dai ran as fast as he could in the main area of the plaza. The red lamps were lit up and the entrance sign was lit up, as well. People were out walking around. Dai ran as fast as he could, even with carrying a bag full of money. He even jumped over some sandwich board signs. But no matter how fast he tried to run, Marcus was not that far behind.

Dai even made his way outside of the plaza and headed northbound on N. Hill Street. Marcus ran in the same direction. There was just no way he wasn't going to make this bust that night.

Dai saw a couple walking on the sidewalk and shoved the woman right into the man and they both bumped into a way and kept going his way.

"You alright?" Marcus said to the couple, but the woman pointed towards the direction where Dai ran, as he was nearing the end of the street.

Marcus just took off and sprinted, as all of the intensity in his system flowed with all of the rage in his body. If this was the way he did business with potential buyers, it was amazing that this guy didn't get his sooner. Not only that, those guys were not true professionals, as they would have likely packed some serious heat in this whole operation.

Though Marcus was strapped, he was not about to shoot an unarmed man, not even in the limb if he was to try to stop the guy. He wanted to do it the way he felt he should in that moment.

Dai turned right heading eastbound on Bernard Street. Marcus did the same as he saw Dai running down the street towards a building that was built with a Chinese feel and had red lighting on the exteriors, ranging from the top and bottom of the second floor, and also the roof. It was the Royal Pagoda Motel. Marcus still had Dai in his sights and saw the man turn right into the motel.

"Gotcha now, punk," Marcus said to himself and ran towards the motel and turned in the exact same direction where Dai went into, which was the lot of the establishment.

Dai turned around behind him. "What the fuck, man? Who are you?"

"Not important, just somebody who's about to fuck you up," Marcus said.

"Man, fuck that," Dai said, as there were two guys who looked rather tough, dressed in dark clothing, as well as jackets with dragon symbols on them. "Fuck him up, guys," he said to the men.

"Oh, so you need your boys and these guys to do your dirty work," Marcus said. "I see how it is. Come on, fight me like a man."

The two men approached Marcus, ready to throw down. Marcus was not about to walk away. He wanted to take down Dai. Whether it was in the hopes of finding a supplier or as a favor to Vivian, if it was a favor or a case, he often saw it through.

The two men tried to attack Marcus, who ducked at the first punch one of the men delivered, but the other one grabbed Marcus from behind, as the other guy saw an open window to deliver a blow to Marcus's gut. However, Marcus delivered a front kick to that man's leg and stomped on the other guy's foot, releasing him in the process. As he stood in front of that man with his back to him, he delivered a hard elbow to the man's gut and turned around and delivered a hard knee to his face, leaving the man's jaw and nose with a huge red mark and blood coming out of it.

Marcus turned around to face the other bodyguard, who reached for his pocked and got something out, as a blade had emitted from the man's grip of his right hand. The bodyguard went forth and from his left, swung towards Marcus's neck, barely missing it by an inch, except the blade made somewhat of the right side of Marcus's neck. Marcus reached for that side of his neck and moved his hand to check his fingers. It was only a scratch, no skin broke.

The bodyguard wasn't done, however. He gripped the switchblade in a stabbing position and brandished the blade like he was set to puncture Marcus. There was little time to react. The amount of adrenaline in Marcus's system was in full swing. The bodyguard moved towards a car. Marcus used this opportunity to go right behind the bodyguard and grabbed him and hoisted him from his feet as his right arm pushed the man downward, slamming the man to the ground.

If that wasn't enough, the other bodyguard wasn't completely out. He got up and busted out a switchblade as well, and picked up the other one that his partner was using. Marcus looked at the downed man, heard him still breathing, contemplating restraining him, until he heard some more breathing. He turned around, saw that the other bodyguard he knocked out, gripping both knives in his hand.

Marcus looked right at the man. He only wanted to take down that guy Dai. Marcus had gone toe-to-toe with people wielding lethal weapons, such as knives and swords. Marcus reached behind him, the other bodyguard got closer, ready to cut and stab him. Marcus quickly jumped up and delivered a hard spinning kick right to the man's face, sending him dropping to the ground before he could even lay an attack on him.

Both bodyguards were laid out. Marcus managed to handcuff one and also had a zip-tie handcuff on him to restrain both bodyguards. He looked up and saw Dai standing there, completely still with a blank stare. His eyes were wide and his mouth was open, speechless at what just happened. Marcus looked over at him.

"What's the matter? You couldn't take me on yourself, so you had to have your boys do your dirty work?" Marcus said in a mildly condescending tone. "I bet it's easier to hit girls, huh, like Vivian Shen?"

Though Marcus had hit women before, whether it was in self-defense or doing it as part of his undercover work in a fight club, he did not respect woman-beaters in the least bit.

Dai's eyes widened even more the moment he heard that name uttered. "Who the fuck are you, man?"

"The real question is what is your whole M.O. in all of this?" Marcus said. "Do you jack all your buyers when trying to sell your shit?"

Dai stood there in silence.

"You know, I could read you your rights, but I'm sure you know what your rights are," Marcus said. "We can this the easy way." Marcus pulled out another set of handcuffs. "Or we can do it the hard way."

Dai shook a bit, like he had no idea how to react to what just happened.

"It's over for you, you're going to have to tell us what's going on down at the station," Marcus said and grabbed the young man.

Several people of Chinese descent got out of their motel rooms, as well as other bystanders looked on at what was going on. It wasn't long until a particular silver and blue muscle car, and a few squad cars pulled into the lot. The driver's side door on the muscle car opened, revealing Nick.

"Hey, partner, what's going on?" Nick said.

"Just taking care of this mess right here," Marcus said as he walked Dai towards one of the squad cars. One of them happened to have Dai's friends in the backseat. It was clear who won that fight between Nick and those guys.

"Well, it's been a long day," Nick said as he was getting back into the car. "I'm just glad I have a day off tomorrow."

A couple of beat cops took Dai away and Marcus went towards the muscle car.

"I hear that," Marcus said. "I need to sleep for at least a whole day."

"Well, our case is still not over, but the reality of all this is, no cop ever really has a day off," Nick said.

"I heard that," Marcus said. "Let's get out of here."

All of the cars just took off. It's been a long day for both detectives. Nick had a plan of his own, as he needed to uncover anything related to the Russians. Marcus wanted to take down Bobby Green, but something told him that the thing with Vivian may have more that what he had been told.

But until then, the two detectives needed to relax from everything that happened that day.

* * *

**BODY FANTASTIQUE, HOLLYWOOD.**

Meanwhile, it was a busy night at the Body Fantastique. Rosie and Rico went to the strip club to talk some more business with Pete, the manager of the strip club. They were working undercover in the drug-dealing as a way to see who may have been supplying and/or cooking up the drugs.

Although they talked with Richard Tyler, a drug cook in Venice Beach, with this drug going around town, there had to be more people manufacturing the drug.

Rosie was dressed in business attire, with a white jacket and white skirt, trying to look professional. Rico dressed in a gray suit with a blue button-down shirt under his jacket. The two undercover detectives were being to the office of Pete Marshall to the sound of "Salt Shaker" from the Ying Yang Twins blasting over the speakers.

"Mr. Marshall had been expecting you two," said a man who looked like a bouncer for the establishment. "You two can just walk right in."

Rosie and Rico nodded their heads.

Rico leaned in towards Rosie's ear. "Are you ready for this?"

Rosie leaned in towards Rico's ear and said, "I'm ready, even though I can tell that guy is a total perv."

Rosie walked towards the door and noticed that it was only closed to a point, with only a crack showing a bit of the inside of Pete's office.

"What the hell?" Rosie said.

"What's wrong?" Rico said.

"I know I was here the other night, but judging from the vibe I got from this guy, he would likely keep his door completely shut," Rosie said.

"What makes you say that?" Rico said.

"For all we know, he probably gives his girls some special privileges," Rosie said.

Rico sighed and rolled his eyes a bit. He remembered how he got towards Rosie the night before. Even Rico suspected that this guy was a pervert.

Rosie slowly pushed the door open. "Pete?" she said.

"Pete, it's me, Raquel," Rosie said. "Alejandro and I are here to discuss the business."

Rosie saw that Pete was face down on his desk.

"Do you think he's tired or something?" Rico said.

"I can't be so sure," Rosie said. "I know he is doing some of the dope, but I can't imagine someone falling asleep on a night like tonight."

Rosie got closer to Pete's desk and said, "Pete, are you alright?"

She took a look on the desk and there appeared to be a red stain close to his head and his hands, as his head was laid out between them.

"What the hell?" Rosie said.

"What's wrong?" Rico said.

"More than we think," Rosie said and got closer and moved his hands and saw that there was more red liquid on the desk. She pushed his head up and noticed that Pete's eyes were open, but completely lifeless as the sclera looked red.

Rosie's eyes widened, as did Rico. She pushed his head up more and saw a big bloodstain on his chest as the blood looked like it came from his neck. To top it off, some of the blood looked like it dripped from his mouth.

"Oh my fucking god," Rosie said with her eyes bulged and jaw dropped.

"What the hell do you think happened here?" Rico said.

"I don't know, but it seems like it was busy out there with so much clientele out there," Rosie said. "Whoever did this was only targeting Pete. We don't know why and we sure as hell know that this person didn't try shooting up the club."

"Fuck this, I'm calling for help on this," Rico said.

Rosie looked at the body. Who could have murdered Pete? What was this person's motivation? Could it have been the Russians? Or could it have been someone else?

The bad part about this was that Pete was her main link to getting in close to the main operation. What was there to do now?

Both detectives walked out of there. A stripper, who looked Mexican, was giving a man a lap dance shook her rear-end in front of a patron and looked up and went to a complete stop as she saw Rosie and Rico walking by. She took a closer look at Rosie at that moment.

"Excuse me, are you done?" the patron said.

The stripper looked up and behind her. "Oh sorry, I got a little distracted." She continued to dance.

It wasn't long until the strip club had been evacuated, as the body of Pete Marshall was taken away in an ambulance.

Rosie and Rico looked on as the stretcher was put into the ambulance.

"Shit, we are fucked," Rosie said.

"What do you mean?" Rico said as he looked over at his partner.

"Either we're back to square one, or we need to find a way to give that guy Vlad his cut of the deal," Rosie said. "I mean this whole thing is sad in itself and we wonder what will happen, but what does that say about our cover?"

"We'll think of something, okay? We got this," Rico said.

"Hope so," Rosie said.

Meanwhile, the same stripper from before watched as Rosie and Rico walked away. It seemed that she knew Rosie and/or Rico from somewhere, but from where or when? What capacity?

All that was on the minds of the two detectives was what will happen next and who may have murdered Pete Marshall and why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, this was a pain for me to write. I had brainstormed this for a while and also been meaning to write it, but I was focused on my Saints Row story. I meant to do it sooner, but I had kept on brainstorming and I had to do a few rewrites for this.
> 
> I was initially going to have Marcus and Dai fight, but I wanted to show that Dai was a bit of a coward and to also avert the typical trope of Asians knowing martial arts. The Vivian subplot is not over yet, FYI. Speaking of which, I will tell you that when it comes to the double standard of male-on-female violence, as well as female-on-male violence, I don't like domestic violence any more than anyone even would. However, I did note that Marcus had fought women before and noted that it was either in a fight or self-defense. This story may have bits like that, but there are situations behind it like if someone were to bust a suspect or someone initiated battle. Besides, I find the double standard stupid because not only when it comes to women hitting men, not only is a man subjected to ridicule, but sometimes women think they have the freedom to hit men. But in this case with Vivian, it's because of domestic violence or anything similar, which I find to be deplorable.
> 
> I will note that the drug deal was inspired by a scene from New Jack City. If you're wondering about the part with Dai calling Marcus "R. Kelly," I'm just going to say this right now. I'm only making note of the fact that some people thought he resembled the singer when True Crime: New York City came out. The other part is that the scene it took inspiration from, Chris Rock called Ice-T "Bob Marley." Think of the relevancy and the use of syllables. This has nothing to do with any of the stuff that R. Kelly was involved in.
> 
> Next up, I may do one that is mostly focused on Nick, and some of it on Rosie. I may do it soon. Stay tuned.


End file.
